The Sybarite sat down with Dr Saira Vasdev, Aesthetic Doctor at leading London skincare clinic, Waterhouse Young to discuss the secret to healthy, young looking skin, her tips on how to feel more confident and how the clinic keeps up with all the latest treatments available.
With a career based on preserving and enhancing one’s external beauty, it comes as no surprise that Dr Saira’s skin is glowing and youthful, making her the perfect advocate for her profession.
Having graduated from the London Medical School, Queen Mary University of London, Dr Saira Vasdev is now a fully GMC registered doctor originally specialising in Intensive Care. She now dedicates her entire practice to the field of Aesthetic Medicine. She tells us that she was inspired to become a doctor “for all the common reasons”, that being her wish to help people, and have a career that is both “challenging and problem-solving”.
“It was a personal passion of mine, I’ve always been interested in skincare” she tells me.
Having worked at several other aesthetic clinics in London, we wanted to know why Dr Saira made the move to Waterhouse Young. Other than the fact it is highly renowned as one of the best skincare clinics in the UK, Saira said she joined because she loved “their fresh approach to aesthetics”.
“Their values are very much similar to mine and their approach is very natural, bringing out the best in you, ageing well, less is more”.
A fan of non-invasive treatments, Dr Saira is pleased that the aesthetics industry it’s becoming “much more regulated, much more safe, it’s becoming a true medical speciality, whereas before, going back probably even a decade, it was something that was done in a salon or the back of a hairdresser.”
Waterhouse is “taking aesthetics into the next generation, being far more medical, far safer and educating people on how they can age well and bring out the best in their skin.”
With so many new treatments being developed, it is sometimes hard to tell which are fads and which give proven results. As there is a great deal of investment going into the aesthetics industry at the moment, there is a lot of opportunity for education within the profession.
Experts have the opportunity to attend conferences that bring together practitioners to discuss everything from the latest treatments, potential complications and best outcomes. Saira herself goes four or five times a year to one of these educational events.
“It just really helps you keep abreast of what’s going on in the industry. It’s really fast paced so you have to be a step ahead of the game, otherwise you’ll fall behind” she tells us.
So what are is the secret to young and healthy looking skin? “Diet and lifestyle, avoiding sun exposure, looking after your skin from an early age, staying hydrated” are the basics that Saira lists off to help decelerate the process of ageing. Those who live in big cities such as London have to be even more proactive in terms of looking after their skin because of pollution, Saira says.
“We start ageing in our twenties. It doesn’t really declare itself until early to mid thirties where you have the early signs of ageing. This [in your twenties] is the time when you need to take more of a preventative, proactive strategy” Saira says. One example of this is upgrading your regular facial to a medical grade facial – the difference being that the latter is purely results driven and evidence based on medical research. It’s a far better investment for your money, she says.
Waterhouse Young offers the HydraEyes facial, a “deeply cleansing, exfoliating facial using a technique called hydrodermabrasion – a superficial resurfacing technique to hoover off the dead skin cells” to brighten and improve the texture of the skin.
“The foundation of good skincare is having a regular medical facial. It’s almost like going to the gym for your skin” Dr Saira Vasdev says. Infact, it’s so important that it can form the foundation of one’s aesthetic treatment plan, which would include a regime with medical-grade products.
If you have been a sun-seeking Sybarite for most of your life and your skin is feeling the effects of your travels, fear not! Chemical peels can help break down sun damage and wrinkles and radiance peels can help boost your skin’s natural renewal process, as well as breaking down blemishes.
Saira swears by mini-facials to keep her skin in tip-top shape, making this a ritual every Sunday evening. The doctor firstly uses an enzyme exfoliating wash with papaya extract and then indulges in a hyaluronic face mask, which is the skin’s natural moisturiser. “A combination of the two means that you get better penetration of the face mask because you’ve exfoliated beforehand” she tells us.
On top of this, collagen supplements – or neutraceuticals as they are otherwise known – are a top beauty hack making big waves in the aesthetic industry at the moment. Saira advises that you seek these out from a medical clinic rather than buying them online in order to ensure they are veritable. “Boosting collagen production from an early age to prevent the inevitabilities of skin ageing” is one of the best things Dr Saira says Sybarites can do to retain their youthful looks for longer.
Above all else though, Dr Saira Vasdev believes that best way to boost one’s confidence is not to pay any attention to the portrayal of how women are supposed to look in the media. She feels that it is “unachievable” and “unobtainable”, and that women should instead focus on what is bothering them and go to see a cosmetic doctor about it to bring the best out in them.
“The skin is the largest organ, it’s really vulnerable, it shows everything…and it can really destroy someone’s confidence” Saira tells us. Luckily though, there is “a treatment for everything”.
“The vast majority of women just want to look great for their age, to feel healthy and fresh” rather than look different, the doctor shares. Infact, her top tip for confidence is sans-product, and is actually to just spend time with other strong, healthy women, empowering one another. Now that’s one treatment you can never get enough of.
Book a rejuvenating skin session with Waterhouse Young with The Sybarite.
By Aimee Phillips
