PMU touch-up form and policy: how to run the perfecting session
The first session gets all the attention, but the perfecting session is where a permanent makeup result is actually finished. It is also where misunderstandings can surface: a client who waited too long, a client who came back too soon, or a client who thinks the touch-up should redo everything. A clear touch-up policy and a short touch-up form handle all three.
This exact form is built into SlickChart: send it to your client's phone to sign before the visit, and her healing guide goes home with her after the first session.
Set the expectation at the very first form
The touch-up starts long before the touch-up. My intake form has the client acknowledge that PMU is a process and a perfecting touch-up is usually needed 6 to 10 weeks after the first session. Each service form then names its own window: 6 to 8 weeks for microblading, lip blush, eyeliner and freckles, and 6 to 10 weeks for powder and combo brows. When she books, she already knows it is coming.
Write the timing into your policy
My booking and touch-up policy spells out the windows, without leaving room for guesswork:
- Perfecting touch-up: included when booked within 6 to 10 weeks of the first session, and not before 6 weeks, since the skin needs to fully heal.
- Later touch-ups: from 10 weeks to 6 months, at a touch-up rate.
- After 6 months: priced as a color boost or a new service.
- Color boosts: recommended every 12 to 18 months, with full price after 2 to 3 years.
I am not going to share my own figures here, because your pricing is yours to set. What matters is that the structure is written down and signed. The policy also covers another artist's work (consultation and photos first, priced as a correction), and it says that concerns about healing are assessed and addressed at the touch-up rather than by refund.
Assess the heal before you pick up a needle
My touch-up form is half artist assessment. It records the original service and date and the weeks since, then asks you to grade the healed result:
- Retention: 90 to 100 percent, 70 to 89, 50 to 69, or under 50.
- Patchy areas: none, front or head, arch, tail, lip line or corners, lash line, or other.
- Healed color: as expected, warm, cool, too light or too dark.
- Shape changes requested: none, thicker, longer, lift, darker, softer, or other.
- Skin notes: oily with blurred strokes, scarring, or healed evenly.
Those bands are not statistics. They are your own judgement, written the same way every time, so you can see patterns across your clients and compare one heal to the next.
Re-screen, because things change in 8 weeks
A lot can happen between sessions. The form asks about health changes since the last visit: new medications or supplements, Botox or filler near the area, retinoids or acids, a cold sore, new allergies or a diagnosis, pregnancy, sunburn or self-tanner, a laser, peel or microneedling nearby, itching, bumps or swelling at the area, and picking or scratching while healing.
That last item is useful. A client who checks it has told you why a patch did not hold. As always, a check opens a conversation and is not a diagnosis.
Record today's plan
Two short fields capture what you did: pigment brand and color, lot number and expiry, and any corrector; then needle or blade, numbing used and the areas you worked. Next year's color boost starts from these notes. (Here is what to record in a client chart.)
The client's acknowledgement
The form ends with one paragraph she signs. My favorite line is the honest one at the end:
Results are not guaranteed, and some clients need more than one touch-up.
Before that, she confirms her health answers are true, that her original consent still applies, and that touch-up timing and pricing follow your policy.
Healing support between sessions
The touch-up goes better when she trusted the heal. My "what to expect while you heal" guide calls the middle weeks the ugly-duckling phase and walks through brows, lips and eyeliner by stage: ghosting at days 10 to 21 for brows, the frosty stage at days 7 to 14 for lips, and a final result at 6 to 8 weeks with the touch-up to fill any gaps.
Questions to decide for your own practice
- Will you hold an early client to the 6 week minimum, even if she asks?
- How will you remind her to book inside the window? (See rebooking for a solo practice.)
- PMU licensing, health department and bloodborne pathogen rules vary by state and county, so check with your state and local health department and board. This post is not legal or medical advice.
Use this form with your clients
SlickChart has this exact touch-up form built in for subscribers. The form goes to the client's phone to sign before the visit, or she signs on your device in the room, and any health change she checks is flagged for you. Aftercare lands in the client's own app, styled with your logo, and it all works alongside the Square account you already have. If that would save you paperwork, try SlickChart.
Prefer paper? The printable PMU set, with the touch-up form, booking policy and healing guide, is in my Etsy shop, ready to print or edit in free Canva.