This is general advice.
While healing, different areas heal differently. Incisions on the face tend to heal faster. Talk about this with your plastic surgeon-there are different types of suture, some sutures you remove and some you don’t, layers of sutures, different timing of suture removal, and differences of healing with age. So how “hearty” your incision is varies. But sometimes patients are afraid to touch their incisions. It is important that you keep your incisions clean.
1-2 days: Generally I have people keep their incisions dry for the first 24-48 hours after surgery so that the incision can “seal.” It is common for the incision to be leaky at this time- blood or yellow or pink fluid staining the gauze is common, and it is part of why I see my patients for their first post op visit to clean them up and change their dressings.
2 days – 3 weeks: You can shower and wash the incision. This is DIFFERENT than submerging the incisions. So a shower is okay, a bath (or pool / hot tub/ lake/ etc) is not. Why? The incision is sealed, and we want you to keep it clean, but it isn’t hearty yet. Putting the skin totally under water is tough on the newly healing skin.
Washing your incisions is good- it is a simple way to minimize the risk of infection. If you have redness, smelly discharge, any openings, or bleeding discuss it with your doctor. For my patients, I give you surgical soap prior to surgery. It is great to use that to clean your incisions after surgery. Usually starting about a week and a half out you will start on scar care.
3 weeks and beyond: If the incision is healed, at this point baths and swimming is ok. Caveat: If there are any areas which seem open (spitting a stitch, a little ulceration, etc), then I would not submerge the incision.
So bottom line: Showers at two days out. Everything else 3 weeks or beyond. Clean incisions are good incisions.