A Luxxerious Afternoon of Botox & Bites

Malcolm Mitchelle displays his bruschetta appetizer, while Dr. Hakki displays his appetizer, breast implants. Photo credit: David Phillipich. "The days of Greta Van Susteren taking time to recover are over." Spoken like a true plastic surgeon, these are the words of Dr. Ayman Hakki, who opened up his Luxxery Medical Boutique Wednesday afternoon in Waldorf, Md. to old and new patients who wanted treatments or just a closer look at the latest in plastics. In his thoughts above on the latest plastic trends involving journalists, he's referring to FNC's Van Susteren going under the knife in 2002 year for a blepharoplasty or eye-lift that landed her on the cover of People. She had a month off before starting her job at FNC and began with a polished face. The event, "Botox & Bites," featured chef Malcolm Mitchell preparing delectable tuna tartare. Mitchell appeared in season eight of the Food Network's reality show "Star." A party like this is on some level surreal. It isn't easy mustering an appetite amid before and after pictures of boob jobs, busts of breasts and actual silicon patties scattered around the office. At one point an implant was being tossed around like a water balloon. That was reason enough for the distraction of Mitchell, who created an array of Food Network-quality hors d' oeuvres like the tartare along with bruschetta and salmon on endive. The Hakki's themselves have all the makings of a reality show. "Can you believe she's 58 years old?" asks Hakki, beaming at his wife, Hiba, who is COO of the company. Without a shred of makeup, the wife does look a decade younger. Their daughter, Dannia, their publicist, says she has never had any work done, but would in a heartbeat if she noticed forehead lines. We'd name the show "Keeping Up With the Luxxerians." Midway through the afternoon, Hakki sat down with FishbowlDC for a grilling on journos and plastic surgery. With a Luxxerious clinic in Georgetown as well as Waldorf, he has treated many Washington area journalists. Of course it's hush-hush -- he never specifically discusses his clientele. But he has opinions and a good eye for detecting who has had work and who has not. Hakki says the biggest trend among journalists involves taking fat from say, your love handles or any other part of your body where you don't want it, and putting it in the middle of your face. "More people are doing mid-face fat transfer along with liposculpture with a side of Botox fillers and peaks," he said. "With age, the first thing is mid-face central emptiness which makes people look haggard. This is mid-face harvesting a person's own fat, letting it decant, transferring multiple layers very minute almost beads of pearl fat lobules in order to fill out the central face." In English, this is a non-surgical face lift. The cost ranges from $5,000 to $15,000 depending on the extent of the service. Getting Botox or fillers is far cheaper -- the range is $300 to $700. Hakki uses Kim Kardashian, who attended the past two White House Correspondents' Dinners, as an example of what you want if you get work done. "When I look at Kim Kardashian I feel that she looks much better and has a fuller mid-face," he said. He points to a combo of "filling first and lifting last." He says he watches many TV journos such as CNN's Anderson Cooper and assesses whether they've had any work done. "I can assure you that he has not had Botox on his forehead," he said, not realizing Cooper had a show on the subject the other day and admitted as much. He said he prefers for his forehead to have lines. But, Hakki added, "I can assure you that Joe Biden had Botox before the debate with Sarah Palin. I was thinking 'Oh Joe! No. No.' I thought he was overdone centrally and underdone peripherally. It gave him a pull that almost looked like a leer that wasn't attractive." He points to Kenny Rogers' eyelids as another example of what not to do. "You can tell Kenny Rogers had his eyelids done," he said. "His mom was like why Kenny why Kenny?" The problem, says Hakki, is they addressed the bags without looking at the rest of the face. Gone are the days when people have to worry about looking like Joan Rivers, he said. But fears loom large and he's heard them all. Hakki sees success in the moment in which your own mother sits down with you for Thanksgiving dinner and can't tell you've had anything done, but knows you look good. Hakki says there's always an emotional component to his work. For example, if a patient ever says she wants to remove her frown lines because her husband doesn't like them, he refuses to do anything. "If the patient says they are doing it for someone else I won't do it," he says. Oh, come on. Can't he be convinced? What if they want it for themselves and someone else? He smiles a big Hakki smile, but he's dead serious. "If they mention another person before themselves, I won't do it." See Hakki's wife after the jump... Hiba, flanked by Real Housewives of D.C. star Erika Martin Hughes and Allergan's Wendy Pittman.

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A Luxxerious Afternoon of Botox & Bites

Betsy Rothstein

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Betsy Rothstein