Hollywood’s Top Docs Reveal Their Cosmetic Secrets at THR’s A-List Aesthetics Event

Gone are the days of getting cosmetic procedures done quietly behind closed doors. Instead, The Hollywood Reporter hosted its inaugural A-List Aesthetics event in Beverly Hills on Wednesday for a day of open discussion about plastic surgery, post-procedure care and knife-free alternatives to maintaining a youthful look.

Timed to THR‘s “The New Face of Hollywood” special digital issue, the event was presented by Skinbetter Science and SkinCeuticals and sponsored by Alma, Body by Apyx, Galderma, Omnilux and The Practice Healthcare. The day featured five wide-ranging panels at the Hotel Bel-Air, and in between guests were able to grab some goodies from the sponsors at a curated marketplace.

Mindy Kaling, Chloe Fineman, Paula Abdul, Heather Graham, James Charles and Garcelle Beauvais were among the stars in attendance, mingling alongside some of the top doctors and aesthetic experts in the country.

The day kicked off with remarks from THR publisher Lori O’Connor and the first conversation of the day, “The Comeback: Restoring Balance, Beauty and Trust.” THR senior vp sales and brand strategy Liz Culley moderated the chat between Dr. Babak Azizzadeh, Dr. Darren Smith and Dr. Sarmela Sunder, which touched on the intricacies of facelifts, upper blepharoplasty procedures and the so-called “mommy makeover.”

Sunder, a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills, spoke about how impactful work around the eyes in particular can be, as “you can make the smallest difference in someone’s eyelid surgery and everyone will notice. You can have the most dramatic lower face and neck lift, and people will be like, ‘Oh, you look refreshed.’ But when you do your eyes, people really notice.”

Azizzadeh, director of the Center for Advanced Facial Plastic Surgery and the clinical chief of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at Cedars-Sinai Health System, also explained the importance of finding the right surgeon, emphasizing, “You have to make sure that not only are they amazing on social media, amazing surgeons and so forth, and safe — but their aesthetic eye, the way they’re looking at the face, are the same as your goals.”

A conversation followed on “The After Party: Post-Procedure Protocols,” where THR contributing editor Elycia Rubin sat down with Dr. Kelly Killeen, Dr. Prem Tripathi and Dr. Carl Truesdale to discuss the best ways to heal from cosmetic work, with diet, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, red light therapy and peptides all mentioned.

“What I tell my patients is everything begins with the preparation,” said Beverly Hills surgeon Truesdale. “I can perform a flawless, beautiful surgery, but unless we have a plan on how the patient can recover, everything will go in the trash can.”

Next up was “Age Against the Machine: The Longevity and Optimization Edit,” with Rubin joined by Dr. Ava Shamban, Dr. Tess Mauricio and Crystal Muilenburg.

Mauricio, a dermatologist and founder of M Beauty Clinic, shouted out her longtime client Abdul from the crowd as the “queen of longevity” as she applauded how far regenerative aesthetics have come. “In the past, really, what we’ve been doing is filling, cutting extra skin. But what if we really can reverse the action of the skin? What if we really can make your skin and the cells behave like it’s younger? And we are able to do that now.”

The group also highlighted the efficiency of Sculptra, an aesthetic injectable that stimulates the body’s natural collagen production, and Shamban highlighted the combo of lasers at a doctor’s office and science-based skin care at home.

Entertainment reporter Catt Sadler helmed the “No Knives Out: Nonsurgical Solutions” conversation, which she kicked off by noting that she got a facelift three years ago and “now I’m talking about my facelift all the time, ad nauseum.” Sadler was joined by Dr. Macrene Alexiades, Natalia Guzman FNP-C, CANS and Dr. Kian Karimi for a discussion of the knife-free alternatives.

Karimi, a facial plastic surgeon, told the room that “for patients that are trying to do non-surgical aesthetics, Sculptra, EZ Gel [a natural dermal filler made from a patient’s own blood] and lasers — that is like the cornerstone of every single treatment that we do, almost every single day.” He also teased that the job of plastic surgeon requires that “we have to be equal parts scientists, artists, technicians and psychologists in every single setting,” and that he has some envy for dentists, whose celebrity clients proudly show off their teeth “but you can’t talk about your facelifts or your fillers or your biostimulators.”

Alexiades, a scientist and dermatologist to the stars, said her approach is to “try to restore the skin back to the age before it starts to deteriorate. Hence, my ability with celebrities, actors, people of stature, to enable them to continue to move their faces, but they don’t have wrinkles — just like we did when we were young.”

Fineman is one of those clients and made an appearance during the panel to talk about how she showed Alexiades a red carpet picture of herself with “a Spock brow” and after one appointment, her face was softened. “I had no idea I looked so bitchy,” the comedian teased, while also noting, “a lot of the girls at SNL look really good, the producers and a lot of women in New York. I feel like there’s a secret group of us who share who we go to — everyone’s getting shit. I think there’s a new trend of being a little more open about it.”

The event closed out with a “Hair Today, Hair Tomorrow: A Little Science. A Lot More Hair” conversation, with Dr. Blair Murphy Rose, Jennifer Hollander MSN, FNP-C and Dr. Drew Taylor, moderated by Culley. The chat touched upon scalp health and hair loss, with Hollander emphasizing, “Hair is very emotional. When patients come in, they’re sort of distraught. They’ve tried everything under the sun, and our approach to scalp health or hair restoration in general is very holistic; in the same way that I approach skin health, I also approach scalp health.”

Taylor added that “the hair space is one of the fastest-growing spaces right now in aesthetic medicine,” with some new treatments in the works that are still years away. “There’s still those early phases of testing, but we’re also really seeing hair as a great target in regenerative medicine, and as regenerative medicine is surging, and regenerative aesthetics is surging, we’re seeing a lot of that.”

That also included a discussion of stem cells, as Taylor explained that “cells are the next currency in our healthcare” and spoke about how beyond beauty treatments, there are eight people in the U.S. right now living with 3D-printed bladders made from their own cells. “Loss that can happen can be due to age, due to damage, disease, any of those things, and we actually bring ourselves back to a previous state of function and use our own biology to be able to do that,” he said. “That’s the promise of regenerative medicine.”

Other notable names stopping by the event included Jeannie Mai, Jamie Chung, Monet Mazur and Holland Roden.