Compassion and passion at Always Aesthetics
MEET THE FINALISTS: BEST IN FASHION & LIFESTYLE
DR AOIFE Raja is a medical doctor from Boston who worked in the Cardiology Department of Cavan General Hospital for three years before opening her own clinic Always Aesthetics just over a year ago in Cavan Town.
“I didn’t choose Cavan, Cavan chose me,” the vivacious Bostonian says of her move here.
The medical registrar followed her father, also a doctor, from the US to Ireland and soon fell in love with a Mullahoran man. Aoife says her partner has encouraged her to do “everything” including opening Always Aesthetics on James Connolly Street last September.
The doctor-led clinic provides a range of personalised treatments for clients including anti-wrinkle injections; fillers for lip, cheek, chin and jawline; advanced skin boosters; mesotherapy; red light therapy; dermaplaning; polynucleotides; medical micro-needling; chemical peeling; sclerotherapy; vitamin therapy; the infamous vampire facial; BioRePeel; derma-planing and fat loss injections.
Dr Aoife’s father had left medicine to work on aesthetics over 20 years ago at a time when few knew what the discipline was about.
“He mastered the technique before it was even invented,” Aoife told the Celt. “I observed him at his work and saw the results he achieved for people, and I thought it was amazing.
“People want their skin to be their make-up,” she says of her important work. “We each have our clothing style, personality and fashion but when people are happy in their own skin, it becomes their fashion.”
The 31 year old explained how she developed alopecia through a combination of stress during med school and during a period in her life when she was navigating eating disorders.
“When you come from a place in your life where you were shy about your own personal experience – in my case extreme hair loss - you want to perform treatments that will help people,” she says.
“Our response has been shocking in an incredible manner,” Aoife says of her first year in business. Her clients are local people who want help with a wide range of issues from, hair loss, to teenage or adult acne, moles, and all manner of skin conditions.
She explains how her clinic is doctor-led, which means all staff are registered medical doctors and how this brings an extra level of care and compassion.
“Our clients come in for a half-hour appointment but end up staying an hour,” Dr Raja says of the personal, local service Always Aesthetic provides.
“We know how a skin condition can affect people’s lives for years before they come to us.
“And there’s nobody better to share your story with than a doctor as we guarantee complete confidentiality.”
While working at Cavan General, Dr Aoife studied and trained intensively behind the scenes before opening her practice. “It didn’t come easy,” she says of the success her business is enjoying so far. “The ‘overnight success’ I am enjoying was six years in the making.”
The businesswoman plans to open a new larger clinic with five treatment rooms over two floors in College Street in January. In this new clinic, Dr Raja will even offer plastic surgery to clients.
All the treatments at Always Aesthetics have been approved by the FDA (the US Food and Drug Administration) and each has been rigorously tried and tested for safety and results.
Compassion and passion ooze from Dr Aoife as she talks about her business, her clients, and the Always Aesthetics mission.
“The World Health Organization defines health as not just an absence of disease and I love that,” Dr Aoife says. “At our clinic we aim to look after the social and mental wellbeing of all our patients.”
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