Dr Wassim Taktouk

When Doctor Wassim Taktouk opens his door to me at his west london clinic the first thing I notice is his striking good looks and friendly laid back personality, so I’m not surprised to find out that his first career ambitions were to be an actor.  Luckily for us he choose his current profession and is fast becoming known as the Doctor to go to if you want to look like you haven’t had any work done. 

So, Dr Taktouk, how did this all begin?

Well I went to medical school at London St Barts Hospital, I then did a year in Australia working in A&E and then came back and trained to be a GP.  After this I realised I really missed the acute side of medicine so went back to working in A&E this time at Chelsea and Westminster.  I did this for ten years while doing the aesthetic side of things on the side. 

 It was around 2008 that a friend said there was a one day Botox training day so I did that – when I look back at that I can’t help think how lucky new doctors coming through today are as they have all this information that we didn’t -  I had to call up all my friends and ask them if I could practice on them.  It was hilarious!    

Its clear you’ve come a long way since botoxing your friends for practice.  You now run your own successful clinic and also practice out of the MediSpa in Harvey Nichols where you do anything from Botox, Profilo to silhouette soft but what would you say is your USP? 

I’m very honest and will say no a lot of the time as I’m not afraid of turning someone away if they are too young or they have already had too much done or they want to do something I feel they don’t need.   Surprisingly anyone can inject fillers or botox so I think having a doctors background gives me the tools to make a mental health assessment.   I also think my clients regard me as a friend so they always relax around me.   

But if I had to pin point what I’m really good at I’d say it’s a full face lift with fillers without changing someone’s face and maintaining a natural look.   No one wants to look like they’ve had something done - although there is this growing trend with the younger generation wanting to look completely different to their natural self – but my generation (30 plus) they don’t.

Why does it seem the age of women getting injectables is getting younger and younger, especially when someone say in their 20s, really doesn’t need botox?

At the moment there is a small demand amongst younger girls to go for really large lips,  I think this is partly due to some celebrities that are promoting this look but there is a little bit too much of this quick fix mentality where they think they can just pop into a clinic and they can fix your chin, lips, nose for just £200.   These things worry me, regulation worries me but I think unfortunately something really awful has to happen before anything will be done about it.  I just hope we aren’t all waiting for a disaster.

And being that we are the age of the selfie.. have you ever had anyone come to you with a filtered version of themselves asking you to make them look like that?

I like to call it Selfieitis!!!   They are coming in asking for this and it isn’t realistic because no ones face is flawless even children have flaws.   And then you have the dating apps.  People are putting these filtered pictures of themselves up there and that is casuing all types of problems.  I had a girl come in to see me and she had put a filtered picture of herfels on a dating site and when she turned up for the gate the guy said she didn’t look anything like her picture.   You have to take some sort of ownership of that and realise that you are setting yourself up for failure as the person you are meeting is expecting you to look like that and like I said, no one looks like that and no one should want to look like that!

If a patent could only do one thing what would you recommend?  

I think investing in a good skin care is key.   Well hydrated skin looks plumper and can give you a bit of a lift -  you can always go for the injectable treatment, Profhilo, which is really great at pluming the skin and hydrating it if you want that little extra help.   However, I think a good vitamin C or retinol and SPF is what will make you look good for you age.  And don’t forget to use the SPF in the winter!  There are also lifestyle changes like exercising (not running as that can cause jowls), eating healthy, drinking lots of water, staying out of the sun and not smoking.   It’s all the stuff we’ve heard before but a good skin care is a great starting point… And that’s for men as well as women! 

I’d like to talk to you about Silhouette Soft as some doctors I’ve spoken to say that it does work some say it doesn’t. What’s your take on it?

It’s a very interesting and lovely treatment and the resultas really come down to patient selection and for the doctor to know if it is going to work for them. It needs to be just the right amount of skin laxity to see if it is going to work but since it first came out technology has changed a lot.  A colleague of mine has done some research and used 10 threads rather than the standard 6 which makes sense as you are spreading the lift amongst the threads and she has seen really great results with this.  What you also get with this treatment is a lifting effect and a collagen boost. 

Any new treatments coming through that we should look out for?

I think the big buzz one from injectables is Profhilo which is a nice treatment and basically gets a bit deeper than something topical creams a serums and then there is EM Sculpt which is a brilliant new machine which tones and burns fat on your abdomen and bum.  I’ve seen some really incredible results from this.

When you first meet someone outside of the clinic and you tell you are a cosmetic doctor what’s the first thing they say to you?  I can almost guess what you are going to say…

What do I need done?  Which of course you are never going to say, I always make a point of never telling anyone what I think they need doing, I always ask them what do they like about themselves and then we go from there.  I would never say what I think they need as it might be something that doesn’t bother them and then all of a sudden I’ve drawn attention to something that ever even bothered them before. 

The whole thing with cosmetic surgery is that It’s not a once size fits all because we are all naturally individual but I am scared that’s where we are going.   Just not if I can help it though. 

To find out more and book an appointment with Dr Wassim Taktouk then go to www.drwassimtaktouk.com