Less Is More – How To ‘Press Pause’ On Ageing With Natural-Looking Filler

Can we really ‘press pause on ageing’ using dermal filler? Alice visited globally-renowned aesthetic doctor, Dr Kuldeep Minocha in London’s South Kensington to find out, witnessing a subtle, full face transformation first-hand.

Watch the video (and read on) to discover why Dr Minocha sees ‘less is more’ as such an integral philosophy for dermal filler injections. Then, get an insider’s look into how he gets his natural-looking results as experienced by a real patient – all while ensuring he never uses too much product…

Why is ‘less is more’ so important for pressing pause on ageing?  

“Less is more is very much the foundation of everything we’re doing, because we want to maintain natural-looking results for that particular individual at that moment in time,” says Dr Minocha.

It’s also about respecting your unique facial anatomy so you don’t end up looking like an aesthetic clone: “[It is about] understanding an individual’s facial skeleton … how things actually balance together, what kind of harmony they create. It’s providing a very personalised injection or treatment plan that suits them at that moment in their lives… which depth you place the injection, how much you place and which product you place, it really matters.”

But how do you get these natural results?

For Dr Minocha, it’s three-fold: the practitioner, the product, and protecting natural animation.

Firstly, “it’s very much in the hands of the practitioner. It’s about their assessment, their artistry, their ability to sculpt. I think this is about ethical injecting, knowing when to say no, and being the advocate for the patient,” he says.

“What’s also vital is using a tried-and-tested, evidence-based product, something like Restylane,” continues Dr Minocha. “Restylane has 80 million injections worldwide, and I know exactly how it will behave for any given individual. That sense of confidence in a product and that reliability time after time, so I know exactly what’s going to happen, is vital to my work.”

Watch an appointment in action 

In the video, Alice meets Michelle who has booked in for a dermal filler treatment with Dr Minocha. She admits having previously been a bit daunted by filler, mainly because on social media the results can be “extremely over the top, very dramatic and overfilled.”

Here’s how Dr Minocha uses Restylane dermal fillers for the anthesis of that – his signature ‘less is more’ approach:

“The beauty of the Restylane range is that it has nine different gels within its portfolio , says Dr Minocha. “That means we can choose the appropriate gel to actually fit that patient at that moment in time. And you can see probably from my needle, how little I’m actually injecting. When you use the right product in the right place, it’s extraordinary what you can achieve for a patient.”

For example, for around Michelle’s temples, he uses just 0.4ml (less than half a teaspoon) of Restylane Volyme. For around the chin, there’s Restylane Defyne, which is known for its flexibility, and, there’s Restylane Classic too. “It’s the most tried and tested HA filler in the world,” says Dr Minocha. “And that’s why I’m happy using it day in, day out, because you get repeatable results.”

The result

Michelle was visually thrilled with her results, and became a little emotional when looking in the mirror.

“Wow. It’s a significant difference,” she says. “It’s actually better than what I anticipated. It’s literally taken years off. I feel as if I’ve become a decade younger; it’s like the old me before all the stress that I have had. I see the old me again in the mirror, which is why I became emotional.”

The final word:

This is a fabulous result for the patient – and it is subtle, in keeping with the less is more philosophy. We did our best to capture good before and after images but it is always hard to capture in a two-dimensional photograph the changes that are more evident in real life. You can see on the video how thrilled Michelle is with the change, and the emotions this stirred up in her. This is what expert practitioners like Dr Minocha are aiming at – a result that resonates with the patient, but that won’t cause anyone else to notice any great change.

This video is sponsored by Restylane