"As a qualified and licensed doctor I am directed to only do good for my patients..."

Huw works as an Aesthetic Doctor and as he became very familiar with the late night Sunday return flights and the Friday evening ‘Get the hell out of the UK’ flights he also quickly established a satellite clinic on the island and started to grow a practice here alongside his thriving UK business. Now he has a permanent clinic in Bendinat, and another in Loughton, Essex; they offer a range of aesthetic procedures such as anti-ageing, teeth whitening, medical facials, micro needling, PDO threads and even non surgical rhinoplasty.

Aside from working directly with patients, Huw is also the medical director for a company in Canada who are on the verge of some exciting new products using the latest in stem cell research.

Is the interest in his services on the increase? “Yes, in fact straight after the lockdown we started to get a lot of new enquiries. I attribute it to the fact that we all spent a lot of time on video conference calls and not everyone was comfortable with what they saw on the screen.”

I say that I think a lot of people worry about being considered vain, but the knowledge that you feel comfortable and confident in your appearance also affects your mental health. “Exactly that,” Huw agrees, “the benefits go further than just looking fresher. When you feel better in your body, everything else changes in your life. We are living longer, and feeling younger. I don’t think having a cosmetic procedure is limited to a certain type of person anymore either, I don’t think there is a profession that I haven’t had a client from, male or female.”

How does Huw feel about the cosmetic surgery industry? “I find some of it to be inappropriate or not properly legislated, here in Spain you do not need to be a qualified doctor to administer injections for example. As a qualified and licensed doctor I am directed to only do good for my patients and as little harm as possible. My philosophy about it is to be appropriate, I won’t treat a potential patient if I feel that what they want to have is not appropriate for their face or body, and I will explain that to them as well.”

What does he mean by “appropriate”? “How the treatment might affect them, how long that treatment potentially could last for, what the recovery time is, and the financial implications, are they an appropriate response? I don’t think that some people understand how lip filler can affect the long term shape of the lip, for example, they must get their doctor to explain it to them, or come to see me and I am happy to.”

You can see more about Huw and his work at www.drhuwjones.com

Why did you dedicate yourself to being an Aesthetic Doctor, I ask. “For one because I enjoy it, when I started in the late 80s we were really only doing some work with filler and then botox. The procedures have developed enormously since then. Also I saw an opportunity to work for myself rather than the NHS, and I wanted to develop my own treatments, which I have done and continue to do.”

Huw has been working as a doctor for 36 years this month, how has he seen the profession change? “We know so much more about the ageing process now. We understand more about when it is volume or elasticity in the skin which needs attention. There are many different ways that you can achieve a certain result these days, so people probably should also just come in and ask about what is available to them rather than assume they know what they need. You can create a combination of options which are bespoke to the individual.”

What is Huw’s number one recommendation for us all living in Mallorca? “Working with patients who live in a sunny climate we should all be wearing sunblock, and we should be applying it much more often than we think we need to. We should be reapplying every two hours throughout the day, and it should be a good quality product as well.” Slip, slap, slop, as they say.