If you don’t already follow Dr. Paul Jarrod Frank of PFRANKMD (pfrankmd.com) on social media, you are missing out. The top doc behind many an East Ender’s gorgeous glow regularly schools his followers on the latest and greatest treatments and technology. Here, we asked the Hamptonite for a master class.
WHAT INSPIRES YOU TO POST ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND EDUCATE YOUR FOLLOWERS? There are so many things I do and so many things I love to perform. In my practice, I’ve found that social media has really been the best way to vocalize the narrative of what I want my patients to hear. And much of that has to do with educating among the various procedures to get the best and most natural results for anything. The thing I portray most is for people to realize that there is no best treatment—the best treatment exists for the right candidate, and for the right person. What’s good for one person is not good for another—which is why there are so many treatments that I offer. If there was one machine that worked on everybody, I would only have one machine, but I have 40 different technologies in my office. And I spend my day doing a variety of combination things to help people find the best version of themselves. So the first tip is really to allow a provider to educate on the options out there. If you only have a hammer, everything looks like a nail. So it’s important to know what the full range of options are. And it’s important to know that it’s not just about results—people have different price budgets; people have different expectations. People have different ideas about recovery and pain. I think it’s really important that the patient and the provider sit down and figure out a game plan, both in the short and long term.
HOW DO YOU ADVISE PATIENTS CONSIDER TIMING FOR PROCEDURES? In terms of best timing of procedures, it’s the summertime now; people have weddings, graduations—people are catching up on so many things right now and it’s tough to figure out what their game plan is, whether they’ve been doing maintenance treatments for years, or whether they’ve never done anything before. My first rules of engagement are to really try not to do anything significant within one month of any major events. So anything with downtime—whether it’s liposuction, laser resurfacing or something that is going to keep you out for a few days—you have to do it at least a month [before]. I usually say about two to three months before for any procedure with significant downtime. For basic maintenance treatments like injectables, light laser treatments, I usually say one month. The golden rule is I don’t do anything within a two-week time period unless it’s a touch-up or a tweak. And again, giving yourself at least a month out for even maintenance treatments like Botox or fillers gives you that opportunity for the just-in-case tweak within the two-week time period because nothing is an exact science. It is an art, and even in the best hands, in the most predictable patient, providing the same treatment over and over again—there are times that things may need tweaking in terms of fillers and injectables.
HOW DO YOU PICK THE RIGHT PRODUCT? Like I said before, there is no right product. Often we choose the brand of product based on the area that we’re treating, the viscosity of the product, what the ingredient is, the reversibility. Ultimately, the result of injectables is going to be very much due to the hands of the provider. I always say injectables are just another instrument, like a musical instrument. You can have the best guitar in the world—but you know, I’m not going to play it like Eric Clapton would. And in a similar light, a good provider will know how to wield most injectables pretty well. So it’s much less to do with what brand and what type of filler and more to do with the technique and the outcome and skill and the art of the provider.
OTHER TIPS FOR GETTING NATURAL RESULTS? People are always concerned about how long things last. And I tell people I care less about how long a treatment lasts and more about how often do I need to see the patient to keep them looking their very best. When you color your hair, you don’t let the color grow all the way out before you redo it—you color in roots. So it’s about maintenance treatment. Sure, when you’re initially doing a new type of treatment, you have to get the mojo of the treatment going together. So it may take some work, but then it’s really about maintenance, and people’s biggest concerns are that they don’t want to look ‘done.’ Well, not wanting to look done really also has to do with not seeing too much of a change at one time. You can have amazing cosmetic work done, but if it is too much of a change, you look too good too quickly. Then it looks obvious. So for a lot of people I always suggest to do little things often. I think that makes the most natural difference, the safest difference and most cost effective. Doing different maintenance treatments less more often. The other thing is too much of a good thing is not a good thing—too much Botox, too much filler, too much laser. It sounds like you may be overselling patients, but it’s best to do a lot of different treatments. Combination treatments give the most natural result—a little injectable, a little laser microneedling skin tightening. It’s the same thing in lifestyle. I recommend cosmetic treatments much like I give lifestyle advice—which is a little bit of diet, a little bit of exercise, a little bit of stress release. A little bit of this, a little bit of that. And I think it’s the combination of subtle changes that make overall big results for patients.
ANY OTHER TIPS? The final tip to natural results is I tell people don’t treat features—treat your face. Or don’t treat a part of the body, treat the whole body. I always look at the big picture. If you only put paint on one wall and put filler and adjust a cheekbone—well, guess what, the room’s going to look different; your face is going to look like you had filler in your cheek. But if you look at the whole face—like you do with a whole room when you’re designing it—you can make subtle changes throughout that make an overall improvement. Even the patient sometimes doesn’t know exactly what I did, because that’s what you want. You want a patient to just look in the mirror and feel good about themselves—not be like, ‘Oh my god, my lips are perfect’ or ‘Oh my god, my cheekbones are perfect.’ You don’t want anything to walk in the room first—certainly not their lips, certainly not their cheekbones, things of that nature.
WITH YOUR HECTIC SCHEDULE, HOW DO YOU STAY SO GROUNDED AND POSITIVE ALL THE TIME? I try to walk the walk, not just talk the talk. And that involves putting a priority on being my best self, not only looking good but also exercise, eating well, getting my sleep, putting quality time in with my family and friends and having gratitude for my passion and my success. By spending some time on philanthropic efforts with my foundation PFRANKMD Heals. And I really find that setting an example for my patients is not only good for me—and makes me feel good, passionate and have the energy I have to do all the things I do—but also sets a really good example for my patients to give them psychological inspiration to just make themselves better looking and feeling.
Photography by: PHOTO COURTESY OF DR. PAUL JARROD FRANK OF PFRANKMD
