Ask Dr Haq

Start with a consultation, not a treatment. The most expensive mistake in aesthetic medicine is being told what you need before being asked what you actually want. A good consultation will spend the first twenty minutes listening, not selling. If a clinic offers a treatment in the first ten minutes, you're in the wrong clinic.

— Dr Ahmed Haq

Probably yes for filler. Almost certainly no for bio-remodelling (Profhilo, Polynucleotides) or for a tiny preventative dose of botulinum toxin in expressive lines that have started to set. The honest answer in your 20s is usually 'medical-grade skincare and SPF, see me again in three years'. That answer doesn't make money, which is why you rarely hear it.

— Dr Ahmed Haq

Nobody comments on it. Your forehead still moves a little. Your brows are not frozen. You look like yourself on a Sunday morning, every day of the week. If colleagues ask whether you've been on holiday, that is the result we are aiming for. If they ask whether you've had work done, we have failed.

— Dr Ahmed Haq

Not pharmacologically — it has no addictive properties. Psychologically, yes, the same way you can become accustomed to a clean kitchen or a tidy desk. The risk is not addiction, it is overuse. Periodic breaks are fine. Your muscles do not weaken permanently; they recover fully within months.

— Dr Ahmed Haq

Refuse syringes you didn't ask for. Insist on a treatment plan written down before the cannula touches you. The puffy face is the cumulative result of small additions, year on year, that nobody is keeping count of. Two millilitres a year sounds modest. Twenty millilitres over a decade is a different face. Bring a list of every millilitre you've ever had — and ask your doctor to do the same.

— Dr Ahmed Haq

Hyaluronic acid filler — yes, usually within forty-eight hours of an emergency appointment with hyaluronidase. We dissolve filler placed by other clinics weekly. Permanent fillers (Bio-Alcamid, polyacrylamide, silicone) — no, not chemically. The lesson is to choose hyaluronic acid for the first decade of your aesthetic life and resist anything described as 'permanent'.

— Dr Ahmed Haq

Polynucleotides. They have done more for thin under-eye skin, for crepey necks and for post-acne skin quality in the last two years than anything since Profhilo arrived. They are quiet, slow, regenerative — and largely invisible to anyone but the patient and the mirror.

— Dr Ahmed Haq

Broad-spectrum SPF 50, every morning, regardless of weather, regardless of season. Ninety per cent of what patients call 'ageing' is ultraviolet damage. The other ten per cent is gravity, genetics and sleep. You can fix the first cheaply, every day, for less than the price of a coffee.

— Dr Ahmed Haq

Because the price reflects who is in the chair next to you, not just the product going into your face. A doctor with twenty years of practice charges differently than a practitioner trained on a weekend course — even when the box of product is identical. The product is rarely where you save money. The judgement is where you spend it.

— Dr Ahmed Haq

Almost never for injectables; sometimes for skincare. A high-street vitamin C serum can be excellent. A discount Botox session at a basement clinic is rarely fine. The difference is that bad skincare washes off; bad injectables stay in your face until they don't.

— Dr Ahmed Haq

Bruising for two to five days in a small subset of patients, swelling that settles within a week, and a result that integrates over four to six weeks. We schedule social events at the eight-week mark, not at week two. Patients who book a 'face for Saturday's wedding' on the Thursday before are the patients who write disappointed reviews. Plan ahead.

— Dr Ahmed Haq

Ten to fourteen days, ideally on a soft silk pillowcase, ideally on your back. Threads need that time to anchor into surrounding tissue. After two weeks you can return to whatever sleeping position your spine prefers.

— Dr Ahmed Haq

'Who is treating me, and what is their full medical registration?' If the answer involves a hesitation, a non-medical title, or a redirect to 'our highly trained team' — leave. In the United Kingdom, asking to see a doctor's GMC number is your right, and a good clinic will offer it before you ask.

— Dr Ahmed Haq

Anything described as 'permanent', anything offered at half-price for booking the same day, and anything photographed with the filter still on. Genuine before-and-after photography uses the same lighting, the same lens, and the same neutral expression. If the after photo is smiling and the before is scowling, you're looking at make-up, not medicine.

— Dr Ahmed Haq