A Letter from Dr. Manjoney
I remember the first time I met an aesthetician.
About 20 years ago, I was at a large party, and she was seated at my dining table. (She was visiting from Chicago.) I had to ask her, what does an aesthetician do? She explained that she did facial treatments to keep her clients’ skin looking fresh and young. She also told me how she had been flown to Paris to take care of one of her regular clients who was on an extended European trip. This aesthetician obviously worked with some high-end clientele, which in those days were probably the only people who knew of aestheticians. As a busy women cardiac surgeon with young children, I had never had time to consider going for a facial, or even knew what might be involved. I asked more probing questions about her technical role. I never dreamed that I would enter into the world of aesthetics myself. But, after all, I am a woman. I always wanted to look my best, and I was beginning to “age”.
Two years later, my internist told me that she had purchased this great new machine to treat skin and veins that could also be used to permanently remove hair. I was intrigued. I went ahead and started a package of bikini line hair removal. Ouch! It was a bit snappy, but this Intense Pulsed Light machine worked! Before I could complete my 6 treatments, however, my doctor had to sell her machine. It wasn’t giving her a return on investment, and was costing huge monthly fees to pay off. I was able to finish my treatments at another center, and I was intrigued enough to begin to read about Intense Pulsed Light (IPL). I was captivated by the finding of skin rejuvenation as the heat from multi spectrum light stimulated collagen production and erased age spots and the redness of rosacea.
My research led me to the same sales rep who had sold the machine to my internist. I believed that I could change lives with this kind of equipment. I lived in the lake country of Wisconsin, and I thought that women out there would love to have permanent hair reduction and improvement in their severely sun-damaged skin. As this IPL device was called a Vasculight, I learned that it was also used to treat spider veins. I decided to set up a center to provide these services to area women. Initially, I wanted to run it as a separate business from my medical practice. But as I educated myself about treating spider veins properly, I learned about this fabulous new (at that time) method of also treating varicose veins in the office. So before I had even opened, I had also purchased a laser to treat varicose veins, which I felt was a good match with my experience in cardiovascular disease.
Eventually, my surgical partners were able to find replacements for me in our cardiovascular practice as I indicated that I wished to shift my attention to my vein procedures and medical spa. We are the longest serving medical spa in the greater Milwaukee area. Our facility has 4 licensed aestheticians in addition to 2 Nurse Practitioners and 2 Physician Assistants. We all try to stay on the cutting edge of innovative techniques that really work. We have not only a full array of aesthetic services, hair removal and vein treatments, but also body contouring features for women AND men. We have continued to grow our clientele and our offerings annually, and we look forward to providing you with treatments that will help you to feel better about yourself as you look better because of modern science and the skill of our talented clinicians!
