Powerful politicians troop to my clinic for good looks

What makes you proud of what you do?

I feel good every time a patient leaves my table smiling: loving themselves and believing that they are beautiful.

Would you be a patient of cosmetic surgery if tables were turned?

I am already doing things on my face. If you look at me, I look younger than you thought, I can tell your age is smaller. I don’t have as many wrinkles as you do.

You must be super old then?

I am 36. How old are you?

I am 20-something but we are talking about you.

Yet you have wrinkles already while I barely look like I have any.

How true is the notion that ‘beautiful people’ have an edge?

There are clinical studies that have proven that more attractive people are more likely to get a job than an ugly person. You can get a job; you can get promotions; you can close a deal. That is the reality of human interactions.

How does the way you look influence your daily interactions?

Sixty eight per cent will remember how you look; 25 per cent will remember what you are wearing and eight or nine per cent will remember what you actually said.

So, what exactly does a cosmetic dermatosurgeon do?

I do treatments that involve beautifying the hair, the skin, the nails, and generally the whole body, mostly without surgery or using laser surgery or employing minimal invasive surgery.

You can remodel faces?

I can change the shape of the nose, I can remove eye bags, make lips fuller, give high cheek bones, get rid of saggy arms, remove dark spots, among other things.

Those procedures don’t sound life-saving

They are not. But there are patients who come to me with life-threatening conditions like psoriasis, Steven Johnson Syndrome and skin cancers like melanoma which can kill within four months and it is a rush against time as I treat them back to full health.

You perform these procedures on Kenyans – not foreigners?

Patients who visit my clinic range from Senators to people from Kibera, Kisumu and Machakos. Sometimes it is a child who has warts or a serious case of eczema.

Senators, you say?

Yes. I mean politicians. Just two days ago I had a governor come for treatment. If you have been keen enough, most politicians don’t look their actual age. That is because they have cosmetic treatments.

Can I get a name?

I will never tell you any name. Doctors are called to observe doctor-patient confidentiality. I cannot breach that.

Cosmetic treatment is largely by choice. What are the effects of long-term Botox for instance?

None that I know of: such notions are misconceptions. I am bound by the Hippocratic Oath: everything I do has to be offering better health and not vice versa. Doctors cannot do to patients what harms them in the long run.

Would you allow people you love, like your wife or children, get cosmetic injections?

I have done Botox on my fiancée live at an expo in Sarit Centre. I have done Botox on my mother as well.

You didn’t think she was beautiful?

No. She was a very beautiful lady even before I did the Botox. It is meant to tighten loose skin and smoothen it. It does not change ‘beauty’.

Do you think that there are beautiful and ugly people?

I like to say: beauty is skin deep but ugliness is to the bone. If you are an ugly person, however nice you look on the outside, you will still and always be an ugly person, regardless of whether you meet international mask of beauty standards.

The world has standards of beauty?

The international mask of beauty applies to everyone – white, black, Caucasian, Chinese. There are certain ratios that make the face more attractive. They are: a large forehead, arched eyebrows, big eyes, a small nose, big lips, and a well-defined jawline. These are scientifically proven to be the hallmark of looking attractive.

Which group comes to you the most for cosmetic treatment, men or women?

In every 10 patients, I treat seven women.

It means women have more self-esteem issues?

No. It means women are always more concerned about how they appear than men.

Your female patients are of what age?

I treat teenage girls with acne to 75-year old women with wrinkles.

If a patient wants to look like a teenager from age 50 can you do that?

I will tell them ‘I am sorry: I cannot do that’. But if it’s kicking some years off the face, that is possible. Patients have to be realistic.

Have you ever questioned the ethics of what you do?

When I was growing up I had self-esteem issues myself. I used to wear glasses; I was a geek. People would laugh at me; they would tease me and I wouldn’t get any girlfriends when I was in high school. I fully understand what it feels like not to be satisfied with your body. Let me also say that if somebody wants to improve their physical appearance to make them feel good about themselves, there is nothing wrong with that.

You felt ugly?

Ugly is a strong word. I felt like I wasn’t as attractive as my peers.

And now?

Now I don’t think that way. I feel that I look good.

Do you think your fiancée loved you because you look good now?

I feel attractive. I believe that she may have felt attracted to me because of my good looks. But I don’t think it was the only thing that she considered.

She found something else in there?

I hope so (laughs)

As you age, you will continue using cosmetic treatment on yourself?

Until I die

You will minimise the greying of your hair?

No. I like it. It is a salt-and-pepper