Celebrity Plastic Surgeon Opens Walk-In Botox Medical Boutique in Georgetown
The Georgetown Dish
Celebrity plastic surgeon Dr. Ayman Hakki has returned to Georgetown, with a new concept in beauty, the walk-in Botox clinic. Dr. Hakki’s medical boutique, Luxxery Express, opened this month on Wisconsin Avenue.
“You don’t need an appointment and you won’t waste hours in a waiting room,” says Dr. Hakki, who is Board Certified in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.
“Patients can see me for their Botox or injectables and then walk to Social Safeway or go shopping.”
The first walk-in patient to the practice, Carmen Phelps, 35, came in last week after seeing the NBC4 feature on Luxxery Express. “When I saw it on TV, I thought, I like the idea of the express service and a spa-like setting,” said the busy House staffer. “But, more importantly, I wanted to go to a real plastic surgeon.”
Phelps knew she wanted a filler, which is now requested as much Botox in the practice. “I exercise a lot, so I don’t have a lot of fat. But my face was looking sunken, drawn. I looked tired,” she says.
“Dr. Hakki looked at my face — from a point of physiology and biology –and then decided exactly where to put the Radiesse injections, based on my bone structure. He knew by giving fullness, here, at the top of my cheekbones, it would decrease the shadows under my eyes. It’s really artistry,” says Phelps.
Thrilled with the results, Phelps is back in the office on Wednesday (without an appointment) to discuss a permanent filler, which entails injecting her own body’s fat into her face.
“I never had any plastic surgery or Botox or anything else before,” she explains “so the injectable let me test if I liked the results. It just looks so good and so natural, so now I have the confidence to do it permanently.”
Asked about reaction from friends and family, Phelps says that “the best part is that no one notices I had anything done.”
“They keep telling me I look ‘rested’, or they say I look ‘happy’,” she says laughing. “And my brother said ‘Wow, yoga is really helping you!”
Another patient, Lauren Lewis, 27, who is at the clinic for Botox, echoes Phelps sentiment about the subtlety of Dr. Hakki’s work. “Not one person thinks I had plastic surgery. Friends keep saying I look ‘rested’,” she says.
Lewis had several procedures five weeks ago, including liposuction on her stomach and back, rhinoplasty (to narrow her nose bridge) and fat injected into her chin to balance her profile. “I’m just feeling more confident. I used to second guess myself, ‘do I look okay?’ But now I wake up the morning, and I know, I look good,” says Lewis smiling broadly.
Unlike most surgeons, Dr. Hakki is a warm, outgoing man, who emphasizes the comfort of his patients. “My job is not just to make people look better, but it’s to feel better as I do it. That’s why I use acupuncture techniques for Botox, it’s painless,” he comments from his sun-filled, ground floor office in the modern boutique.
To demonstrate, he allows me to watch as he gives Botox to a first-time patient. “See how I hold the needle against the skin but don’t push?” he says as we all lean in to look. “Just wait, see how gravity pulls the needle in just enough so when I inject, she doesn’t feel a thing, just like the acupuncture needles.”
After about a minute, the needle on the patient’s forehead move a few millimeters, and he slowly pushes down the syringe. The patient doesn’t move at all; she seems blissfully unaware that the procedure was happening.
Dr. Hakki says a plastic surgeon’s expertise in how to make Botox and injectables safe and subtle-looking. “When I was in my residency at Georgetown– 25 years ago — every Monday, we’d cut open the whole forehead. So I know every muscle in this area underneath the skin,” he says gesturing to the patient’s forehead and brow.
Also, he believes strongly that a plastic surgeon is the only kind of medical doctor who can fully understand the bones, fascia and muscles in the face to effectively perform the Botox procedure.
Dr. Hakki is a familiar face in Georgetown. He was Chief Resident in Plastic Surgery at Georgetown University Hospital. He then opened his first practice in the heart of Georgetown at Thomas Jefferson and M Streets in 1987.
His “Georgetown Aesthetic Clinic” was the area’s first medical spa. At a time when other plastic surgeons were still working out of hospitals and doctors offices, Dr. Hakki’s treated many Georgetown residents at the easily-accessible, spa-like environment.
Dr. Hakki has come full circle with the opening of this new Georgetown practice, but he has changed with the times. “Back then, it was all about lifting,” he says, while pulling the skin on his cheeks back, towards his ears.
“Now, plastic surgery is all about filling the face. Fillers are sweeping the country because we’ve learned that the key to youth is not a tight face, but a full face.”
Suddenly, the good doctor exclaims “I love the English language!” and starts typing on his laptop. He turns the screen around and points at the text.
“See the word ‘youthfulness’ – it has “fullness” in it, youth-FULLNESS. Now, you see, it doesn’t say ‘youth-TIGHTNESS’, does it? No.That’s because fullness is the key to a youthful looking face.”
Since both patients in his office told me that no one suspected they had been filled, injected or altered surgically, I ask if that natural look is a priority for Dr. Hakki. He looks intensely, and says, “If anyone knows you had something done, then your plastic surgeon failed you.”
A surgeon who says “face lifts are the last resort” gives confidence to a conservative Georgetown patient base. “Fill first, lift last,” he says firmly.
But, he says “we all need to add fullness” to our faces to keep looking young.” And he says, “Botox makes you look less tires, less angry and makes you happier.”
So, with the new walk-in Botox medical boutique now open in Georgetown, we can expect younger looking, less angry and happier neighbors.
Luxxery Express medical boutique is located at 2141 Wisconsin Avenue, NW.
Walk-in hours: Monday 11am-2pm, Wednesday 3pm-6pm, Friday 3pm-6pm and Saturday 11am-2pm.
For additional information, call (202) 333–9294.
Dr. Hakki provides cosmetic injectable services such as Botox, Juvederm, Juvederm XC, Radiesse and other non-invasive fillers.
Luxerry also offers a full line of medical-strength, private label products.
