Have you had a facial lately?

 I certainly had not had one in YEARS until today!  I preach about wellness and taking care of yourself, and I have failed to live up to that standard.  Fortunately, with my new spa, I am able to indulge in taking care of myself the right way.  

I would like to introduce Connie, my aesthetician, not to be confused with Connie, my aesthetician.  No, that was not a typo.  I have two Connies at my new Spa at Willow Bend who are both aestheticians.  The original Connie has put together a lot of the services for the Spa and is also a laser technician who runs my laser center.  The Connie in question here is a new addition who has proven herself in more ways than just being a fantastic facialist.  She has proven herself to be a leader and a team player.  She will take out the trash, answer the phones, and offer creative solutions to make our spa even better.  She is truly what I like to call a hospitalitarian, i.e., someone dedicated to the utmost level of excellent service.  Your experience at the Spa will be exceptional because of her. Did I mention that she is fluent in English, Spanish, Italian, and French?

 Okay, on with describing the facial without giving too much away from the experience…  She starts the facial therapy with this meditative aromatherapy and breathing exercise to guide you into a deep trance before she starts her therapy.  She opens her session with a 15-minute steam treatment to prepare my skin for intense therapy.  Cool eye and neck therapies are followed by what Connie describes as a “European method” facial that combines a certain pattern of hand motions that are truly an original experience and sequence of treatments.  At this point, I know she engaged in a series of incredibly luxurious feeling but equally therapeutic interventions (but don’t ask me to describe all of them because I dozed off a bit during my facial massage).  Under police lights, she studied my skin and worked assiduously to extract some blackheads from my nose, one of which was quite stubborn and finally relented.  She gave me a 10-minute calming mask (see photo) to help my eczema and problem skin areas while she gave me a massage using a specially formulated hand relief cream on my arms and hands (very nice!).  She then applied a barber-style warm towel wrap and thereafter administered a back massage with a warm towel.  I can’t recall all the details as I was on another planet for part of the experience.  Suffice it to say that it was excellent.  

Okay now, why get a facial and how often?  Obviously, the luxury and relaxation are incredible and reasons enough to have it done.  However, I looked at my skin afterward and saw how absolutely wonderful it looks.  Connie explained to me that a good facial regimen consists of a monthly intense facial with ongoing daily skin treatments at home.  The monthly facial will provide expert deep cleansing that if performed at home could actually hurt the skin.  Also, the facial will condition the skin for better results with the skin care therapies that one uses daily.  If you have spent good money with me, you really should consider incorporating an easy and fun monthly facial at our spa.  For more information, call 972-312-8189.

I have looked at a lot of companies’ slogans out there, and the one that I love the most is Maserati’s “Excellence Through Passion”.  Is it funny?  No.  Is it catchy?  No.  It’s simple and captures the heart of what the company does and stands for.  

I was recently doing a hair transplant consultation, and the prospective patient asked me, “What makes you different?”  I replied, “It would take me 10 minutes to answer that question.”  Well, it did.  At the end of my very long response, I said, “It boils down to one word, Passion”.  If you look into your surgeon’s eyes and you see a glazed over, dead look, what do you think this surgeon’s care level will be during your procedure?  What do you think your surgeon’s care level will be after the procedure?  Are you a dollar sign in his eyes? I hope not.  Passion separates the great from the feeble.  It separates what makes us strive to be the best that we can every day.  In short, Excellence Through Passion.  I would love to steal this slogan, but obviously I can’t. So, I’m going to borrow it now for the sake of this blog.  Pretend its mine for now.

 Btw, how does Maserati achieve excellence through passion?  First, they build in 1 year the number of cars Mercedes builds in a single hour.  They do everything built to order.  You don’t just go and say I’ll take that car.   You special order every small part of your car a year before you get it. They painstakingly custom build everything.  That is how I treat my patients.  I do 1 (at most 2) surgical cases a day, and if it is a procedure that spans over 3 hours or more, I definitely will be doing only one case that day.  That is how I ensure that I am giving you my psychotically insane best.  As much as you would never want to be on the receiving line at the end of a long day, I will never make you my 4:30 pm surgical case because all my major operative cases are first and only cases.  Now, find a surgeon who will do that for you!

Last year I discovered this great series of scents made by Frederic Malle known as Editions de Parfums that is sold either exclusively at Barneys New York or online. The concept behind what M. Malle (the M. is short for Monsieur for you non-franocophiles) created is that he allows the scent artist to create his creation with no budget, no time constraints, and no marketing pressures. Also, on each bottle, the artist’s name is prominently displayed. I love this concept first of all because many colognes/perfumes out there are made for a “label” like Calvin Klein; the artist is never recognized; there is a tight budget and timetable for the scent; and the scent must be heavily packaged and marketed. Do you know who made Armani’s cologne? I don’t either. That is what is so cool about M. Malle’s scents. It appeals to me because I love the idea of the artist having complete control from beginning to end of the process of creating the perfect scent that is not intended to fit a perceived commercial concept. Beyond that, I love the scents. Interestingly, they are unisex scents since if you smell good, you smell good irrespective of one’s sex.

Besides the box of all 16 scents in small capsules, I own the large versions of 4: Dominique Ropion’s Carnal Flower- a beautiful, rich and unique tuberose laden scent that truly is the most floral and “feminine” that I own (don’t worry I’m okay with that. it is very sensous. and the sweetness of the floral scent is NOT cloying or cheap. it is luscious and beautiful); Jean Claude Ellena’s Bigarade Concentrée: a very clean citrus smell of bigarade, or bitter oranges, simply elegant and clean; Maurice Roucel’s Musc Ravageur a beautifully soft creamy smell with hints of vanilla and bergamot; and finally Michel Roudnistka’s (son of famed Edmond Roudnistka) Noir Epices- my favorite right now which is a rich oriental spice smell with utter complexity and sophistication- very sexy. These 4 scents are so very different and I match the scent to my mood and what I wear. Interestingly, if I wear pinks, I will be more inclined to go with Carnal Flower. If I wear blues, I may go with the Bigarade. If I go with browns, I like Noir Epices. Sometimes, I just go with what scent I like irrespective of clothing color. Okay, I am now sounding a bit crazy. I just love a sophisticated scent. I don’t wear one every day but when I do I love smelling it.

I finished a book a few months ago, Chandler Burr’s The Perfect Scent that documents the creation of two scents: Jean Claude Ellena’s first signature scent for the house of Hermes and Sarah Jessica Parker’s first commercial scent, I believe called Lovely. Besides the development of these two scents, I loved the history of the perfume industry and the incredible degree of artistry that these artists possess oftentimes swirling subtle notes of hundreds of essences to make the final product. What I also found was interesting is the power of synthetic scents. Many people want only “natural” scents. This is total garbage since there are terrible environmental effects from deforestation to mine a single ingredient plus there is no control ultimately over the scent because there are a lot of extraneous scents that exist in a natural scent and variability. Okay, just thought I would provoke your interest in smelling good. Remember artistry and style do not necessarily relate to just how you attire yourself. A beautiful scent can be an incredible element of self expression.

As you guys probably know, I consider good clinical photography one of the cornerstones to proper physician-patient communication.  I was looking at this print ad recently by a local plastic surgeon and he had his before photos shot looking like Nick Nolte after a drinking binge and his after photos looking like some kind of glamour photography.  ARE YOU ABSOLUTELY KIDDING ME?  What is going on with scientific communication?  After attending my cousin’s high school graduation recently, I decided to buy a new Nikon D300 (of course, days before the D700 full frame version came out) because I saw my cousin Gordon shooting some incredible shots with this camera.  I figured my D100 was totally outdated since it is 6 years old and not even manufactured by Nikon anymore.  I was tempted when I saw the D200 but waited for the D300.  However, when I shot multiple shots with both the D100 and the D300 in my rigorous clinical setting, I saw that the D300 with its incredible advanced metering softens an image tremendously.  I tried every setting both Manual and Aperture Priority and bracketing all the shots.  The images simply looked too soft.  If the images looked good with the D300 I would have used the D100 for all patients after surgery who had their before image shot with the D100 for sake of consistency.  If you want to see a video and learn about how literally psychotic I am about photographic integrity and consistency, read this link page. Accordingly, I bought a backup D100 on eBay.

 Because of this little experimentation effort, I was quite depressed at having purchased such an expensive new camera.  Fortunately, I found a use for it. With the friendly and exhaustively extensive responses by my professional photography buddy, Ed Zabel, in LA, he guided me to purchase a couple beautiful Profoto lights. I have really enjoyed metering and shooting like a real photographer (which obviously I am not). If you look at the photo I took of Donna for the staff section I tried to partially match the quality of Ed’s work (obviously not great but at least marginally close). I used a lot of flash fill lights (i.e. the Profoto strobes) and a lot of Photoshop “post” work to get the image to soften and match the color tones of Ed’s fantastic work. In short, all my little tricks are well suited for beautiful portrait photography but absolutely wrong and unethical for good clinical photography. Accordingly, I want to help my patients understand what I do when I shoot honest clinical photography and when I “cheat” with fun photos that are intended for non-clinical purposes. These are not the same thing!

The forum section of this website where I answer questions every day is a unique and, in my opinion, vital part of the vibrancy of the LFP site.  I check and answer questions usually 3 to 5 times a day and answer questions with honesty and thoroughness.  Hopefully, that will help guide prospective patients (and established ones) along safe and effective routes for facial cosmetic enhancement.  

Along those lines, I wanted to update the forum to reflect the modernity of this site and make it more user friendly and readable.  In short, I did not want it to look like the old Roman Forum (hence the photo, ha! ha!).  Some of the basic changes that have been added to the new forum are as follows:  

1.  an entirely different look with a cleaner font, cleaner organization, and easier to read background.  

2.  readers can now upload photos directly to my private message so that they don’t have to send me an email to review the image.  (I am working on whether more than a single image can be uploaded that way).  

3.  there is a host of security tweaks and other administrative tweaks that will make this forum truly hopefully one of the best experiences you have had on the web.  I would like to thank Mike for his absolute passion, dedication, reliability, and hypomanic obsession that reflects how I approach my career!

As you guys may have seen in a recent blog, I hired Donna, who is a registered nurse, to help me with preoperative sessions on Tuesday.  In the spirit of fun and getting to know my staff a bit better, Donna has sent me personal photographs of herself and her family that you might like to peruse in the Staff Personal Pages section.

Also, we have finally come up with a nickname, albeit possibly temporary, as we try to get to know her better so that we can come up with a more effective and crazier nickname.  I believe my medical and surgical and hair transplant (wow!) assistant, Darla, came up with the name “New Kid on the Block”, which led me to think of the 1990s Boy Band of the same name (of course, in plural) which was affectionately referred to as “NKOTB”.  So we’ve been calling her NKOTB (btw, for you weak in your pop culture, you pronounce each letter N-K-O-T-B).  She then signed off one of her emails to me with NKOTB, “The Right Stuff” after NKTOB’s famous song of that name so I may try out “right stuff” too, which of course, may lead us to the space movie with Tom Hanks.  I am open to suggestions.

I would like to thank Roger Leighton and Shirley Flabbiano for their creative and impeccable design work on my new spa.  I took this photo of our lobby which is about 99% finished.  The window treatments are hand etched leaves on acrylics with hand stained bamboos and assembled.  Who did all of this?  Roger! Roger Leighton is an amazing artist with paintings he has done that deserve to be hung in the Louvre.  He hand painted everything including the furniture.  He hand drew all of the wall designs, hand etched the leaves, and, yes, sewed the kimono hanging on the wall from my mother’s family blanket.  This dude is amazing!  

Come try our blow your mind services.  Just had another manicure today!  I am addicted.  I get one every week and my nails look hot baby!  Try a foot detox.   Try a facial, oxygen therapy, incredible massage.  How about a chocolate body wrap?  My mom did that last week in our very high-end European, for lack of better word, body capsule.  I have put over a million dollars into this wonderful new place and hired only the best staff.  I guarantee you will love it!

I just finished Lance Armstrong’s book, It’s Not about the Bike:  My Journey Back to Life, and wanted to reflect on some of the thoughts that entered my mind.  First of all, I really enjoyed the book.  It was long overdue that I read it, and I am glad that I finally did.  His ability to fight back from almost unbelievable odds is amazing.  After he won his battle against cancer, his doctors said he was less than the 3% of all comers with testicular cancer as far as being the worst or most severe case.  Part of my mission with this wellness center is to provide a global wellness program to help others.  Deborah Haynes, the Director of Operations at Anti-Aging and Vitality Center, spoke in Cleveland where I visited her AVC center there and said, “A healthy man has a thousand wishes, a sick man has but one.”  That resonated very clearly with me.  My father suffered all his life and finally succumbed to illness in his last days.  I am glad that I was there to see him and stay with him in his final days.  We truly take our health for granted.  In fact, we take a lot of things for granted.  Every day we get up and complain about something, usually something trivial.  Until you have been faced with life and death, you can’t appreciate how much you truly have.  When I was traveling abroad in Asia for 6 months to study Asian cosmetic surgery, I went to Bali for an Oriental Society of Plastic Surgery meeting.  I left on Saturday at 1 pm. It was not until Sunday night when I returned to Hong Kong that I realized that a bomb went off in the exact night club that I was in the night before at 11:03 pm Saturday that led to casualties of epic proportions.  The lucky died.  The unlucky survived with at least 80% plus body burns, disfigurement, and loss of hearing.  I am grateful today that I am alive.  I want all of you to reflect on how precious life is and how much God has given us to be here today.

I took a test about 6 months ago known as an RMR or resting metabolic rate that showed that I was only eating up about 1500 calories a day.  The problem was believe it or not I was not eating enough food so I was lowering my metabolism and causing my body to store fat with my body thinking I was going into starvation mode. I should be burning about 2500 to 3000 kCal per day.

 So for all of you out there who say, I am not going to eat breakfast so that I can lose weight may be doing your body a gross disservice.  Oftentimes we read about the fact that we need breakfast for good daily functioning and cardiovascular health.  I think those points have already been often stated and are important but come on I’m talking about looking good! (Just kidding).  I have been faithful and have had breakfast every morning as far as I can remember since I learned of that news.  I hear that it takes 21 days to break a bad habit.  Fortunately, I think I have far exceeded the time window to regain that bad habit.  I started with Kashi bars that were really good tasting and easy.  I could eat them in the car with a double espresso.  Now, what I am really enjoying is a mix of yogurt, honey, granola, and blueberries.  As a little advice, try the Agave Nectar honey.  Once you’ve had that, you can’t go back to regular honey.  It is beautifully aromatic, lightly sweet without the cloying quality of conventional honey.  Also, as far as yogurt, the Fage yogurt (pronounced Fa-yeh) is really amazing.  I found out about it through a patient of mine (Ellie) that I ran into at Central Market Grocery, which carries both products.  Blueberries as you know are rich in anti-oxidants, always a good idea.  Anyway, hopefully this thought was helpful for you guys out there.

I read the New York Times every morning to keep abreast of current world events, but beyond reading it for that end I also read it for interesting news stories.  I really loved reading this little story of a gentleman Matt Harding who posted a video of his dancing around the world on YouTube only 2 weeks ago which has gotten nothing short of a viral response with over 4.5 million views.  So, of course, I had to watch it.  To tell you the truth, the original music is infectious and uplifting and so is his silly little dance.  For all of you out there that I hopefully can uplift a little every day, watch this video and smile.