№ 14Three stories
What people asked for,and what we did instead.
Text only, with permission, names changed. We do not publish before-and-after photographs; the imaging belongs to the patient.
№ 01Harriet, 43
Anti-wrinkle injections, one area, and a retinoidShe asked for three areas.She had one.
Asked for
A photograph at a friend's fortieth had shown her a frown she did not feel. She arrived with a list: forehead, frown and eyes, and a date four weeks away.
What we did
Imaging showed movement lines mostly between the brows and resting lines elsewhere that toxin would not touch. Dr Vance treated the frown only, prescribed a retinoid for the rest, and booked the review at day fourteen.
How it went
At the review the frown was soft and the brow moved. A four-unit top-up on the left. She has come back every four months since for the same one area, and started SPF for the first time in her life.
- Time
- Consultation, treatment nine days later, review at two weeks
- Cost
- £75 consultation credited; £195 for one area; review and top-up included
№ 02Priya, 38
Prescription skincare programme for melasmaThe treatment she had booked elsewhere would have made it worse.
Asked for
Brown patches on both cheeks that darkened every summer. She had an IPL course booked at a salon and came for a second opinion after reading that melasma and sun damage are not the same thing.
What we did
Cross-polarised imaging showed the symmetrical, deeper pattern of melasma. Dr Haddad cancelled the idea of light altogether and wrote a twelve-week programme: tinted mineral SPF, a prescription compound at night, azelaic acid in the morning, and reviews at four and twelve weeks.
How it went
Imaging at twelve weeks showed the patches lighter and smaller. She knows they will return with sun and has a maintenance routine that costs her about £40 a month. No device was ever used.
- Time
- Twelve weeks, two reviews
- Cost
- £195 programme; products about £130 to start
№ 03Daniel, 35
Laser hair removal, back and shoulders, course of eightEight sessions, a patch test, and a door on the mews.
Asked for
Hair on his back and shoulders that he had waxed for a decade. He wanted to stop thinking about it, and he did not want to walk in the front door past the coffee shop.
What we did
Consultation and skin typing with Tomasz, a patch test, then eight sessions six to eight weeks apart on the diode laser, settings written down each time. Every appointment through the Chapel Mews entrance, mostly at 08:30.
How it went
By session six the growth was patchy and fine; by eight it was a few stray hairs. He booked one top-up at nine months. No burns, no marks, one sunburn-like afternoon after session two when he had, by his own admission, been in the garden.
- Time
- Patch test, then eight sessions over eleven months
- Cost
- £240 a session, or £1,540 as a course of eight paid over ten months at 0%
Your story starts with a consultation, not a treatment.
Take the skin quiz№ finConsultations available
Start with aconversation, nota treatment.
45 minutes with a doctor with a doctor, £75, credited to any treatment within three months. Nothing is injected at a first appointment, for anyone. If the doctor advises no treatment, you have still had the imaging, the routine and the honest answer.
Charlotte answers 01632 960900Mon–Wed 08:30–18:00The Crescent doorChapel Mews entrance