There’s so much more to aesthetics than injecting!

One of the things I love most about aesthetic medicine is the science behind it.

I’m genuinely fascinated by how the face works, how it changes as we age and how the products we use interact with our tissues.

I think people sometimes assume aesthetics is simply about filling wrinkles or replacing lost volume, but there’s so much more to it than that.

Our faces are made up of different layers of tissue, fat compartments, muscles, ligaments and bone. All of these structures change as we get older, and understanding those changes is really important when deciding how, or even whether, to treat something.

I’ve invested a lot of time into developing my understanding of facial anatomy, including advanced anatomical training through specialist cadaveric dissection. Which by the way was absolutely traumatising! BUT It’s something I absolutely love learning about because the more you understand, the more you realise just how complex the face actually is! I have not looked at another face the same way since!

It also changes the way you look at treatments.

For example, if somebody comes to me concerned about their nasolabial folds, I don’t just want to look at the fold itself. I want to understand what’s happening elsewhere in the face that might be contributing to it.

Is it changes in the underlying bone? Redistribution of facial fat? Skin laxity? Or a combination of different things? A lot of my patients come after weight loss from GLP-1 treatment. Losing weight so quickly has many benefits to our health but our skin loses so much of the right ingredients that make our cells work which make us look well, rested, fresh and youthful! Another important topic is Oestrogen! Us women never catch a break! During or prior to menopause when our oestrogen levels drop, it reduces in our skin cells too, that’s why it’s so common to spot these signs of ageing around this time in our lives.

Putting filler into an area doesn’t necessarily address what’s causing the concern. My approach to aesthetics and your face is to understand when to fill or when regenerative treatments can help to restore cell function or the environment of those cells to reduce or reverse signs of ageing. Because lines and wrinkles or volume loss that you see is never just ‘getting old’, everything I have mentioned in the paragraph above is what is really happening and it’s my job to understand that.

I’m also really interested in the products themselves. Why do some fillers behave differently from others? How do they respond to facial movement? How do their physical properties influence where they’re most appropriate to use?

And importantly, what happens to these products over time?

I think this is something we should be asking more questions about in aesthetics, particularly when we’re treating younger patients who could potentially be having treatments over several decades.

I’m not interested in using more product than somebody needs. I want to understand how we can achieve good results with the least amount of intervention necessary, while being realistic about what the evidence can and can’t tell us.

Another area I’m becoming increasingly passionate about is the effect of hormones on our skin, particularly during perimenopause and menopause.

There are so many changes happening beneath the surface, and I think women deserve to understand why their skin, hair and facial appearance might suddenly feel different.

For me, aesthetic medicine isn’t about trying to make everybody look younger.

It’s about understanding the individual, identifying what’s actually changing and deciding together whether there’s a treatment that could genuinely help.

And sometimes there isn’t. Sometimes the right thing to do is nothing. HOWEVER, with advancements in aesthetic medicine, there are some pretty good tools to allow us to make an amazing difference. I’m proud to say that after years of researching and training, I have some of the best products on the market! I will always be transparent about what we can achieve and I’ll explain absolutely everything and how it all works and what you can expect to see! Exciting stuff!

I want to use this little section of my website to share the things I’m learning, research I find interesting, questions that come up in clinic and my thoughts on different treatments and products.

Some of it might be a little science-heavy because I do love getting into the details, but I’ll try to explain things in a way that actually makes sense!

Ultimately, I want people to understand more about aesthetic medicine so they can make informed decisions about their own treatments.

I don’t want to stop people ageing. I want to help them age well.

Ashleigh x 🤍