Botox party at D.C.'s LuxxeryExpress: From 'Boytox' to 'Blowtox'

Last night, D.C.'s first walk-in Botox clinic opened its doors to the wrinkled. Dr. Ayman Hakki, the cosmetic surgeon behind Glover Park's new Luxxery Express Botox Boutique, aims to inject the popular muscle-freezing protein into area faces without the hassle of a doctor's appointment. After all, hassle leads to frowns. Frowns cause wrinkles. And wrinkles require Botox.

Perhaps it was the heavily-trafficked open Champagne bar; perhaps it was the carefully blocked nerve impulses. For whatever reason, few frown lines were on display at Luxxery's grand opening fete yesterday evening. "Everybody's in a good mood here tonight," Hakki's 81-year-old mother, Maha, told me. "It's the idea of plastic surgery. It makes people happy."

BROTOX.

"I'm 56 years old. I'm a child of the '50s, baby," says Hiba Bittar, Luxxery's chief operating officer and Hakki's wife of 33 years. Bittar, playing hostess tonight in a tight floral dress, looks neither young nor old. She agrees to give me a tour of Hakki's work.

"Obviously, at 56, I wouldn't have these breasts. I have breast implants and the whole world knows it," she says, clutching a Piper-Heidsieck Champagne cocktail in one hand. Bittar sweeps her free hand over her face. "And I do all the typical fillers and fat transfers that you need to do to look like I do."

And her husband performs it all for her. "Oh, he's operated on every family member of mine and his," Bittar says. "Our son, nieces, brothers, brothers' wives. His mom." Call it "Brotox."

Hakki's mother, Maha, received a face-lift from her son at age 55. Now 81, Maha doesn't do Botox. "I'm OK! I'm fine! I don't need it!" she tells me.

She gets a different kind of benefit out of Hakki's cosmetic treatments. "I have the in-law suite," she tells me. "Bedroom, bathroom, sitting room, living room, everything. I've got my own car. I drive places." And she gets invited to the parties.

BOYTOX.

"Botox knows no age, no gender," Bittar tells me. In fact, Luxxery's first male client walked in just the other day. Bittar estimates that 20 percent of Luxxery's Botox recipients are male, but that most of them "wouldn't want you to know they were in here."

Bittar has got a plan to change that. "I'm going to call it 'Boytox,'" she tells me. "Men shouldn't have to feel weird about doing what they need to do to take care of themselves."

The men in attendance are split on "Boytox."

"No," offers Pierre Rahal, 55.

"Possibly," Don Silvey, 41, says. "It's all about marketing. Why do you think they created Vaseline For Men?"

On a scale of 10 to negative 10, Christien Oliver, 26, rates his interest in Botox a negative 10. If Botox were "Boytox," "I'd still not be inclined," Oliver says. "I guess it might move me to a -9.5"

Timur Tugberk, who rolls into Luxxery in a V-neck t-shirt, blond-dyed mohawk, and sparkly gold slippers, is one of the District's elusive male Botox users. "Love it," says Tugberk, 26. "Necessary."

Tugberk's thoughts on "Boytox"? "That's cute. I mean, it sounds really gay," says Tugberk, who is gay. "But that's OK, gay boys need it too."

What about "Brotox"? "So lame," Tugberk says. "I'm not a bro, I'm a ho. They should call it 'Hotox.' They should call it 'Blowtox.' Now that's a party I'd go to."

BOOZETOX.

Half of the attendees at Luxxery's opening are members of the press. A few are friends of Bittar's from her yoga class at SomaFit. And some are just here for the Peacock Cafe passed radish-and-seawood lettuce wraps, the free samples of Luxxery's private label skin care line, and the open bar.

In the corner of Hakki's clinic, three friends huddle near the gift bags, clutching drinks. They're not here to assess their periorbital lines; they just heard of the party through local business resource Bisnow. One of the guys introduces friend Mary Carrick to me as "a former supermodel. Back in the Stone Age, before you were born." She models "underthings," he tells me. "And shoes."

Carrick denies she models anything. "I'm five-four-and-a-half," Carrick, 44, says. In fact, she says, "I don't really do anything right now." I ask her if an interest in cosmetic surgery brought her out tonight. "Not surgery. I haven't really talked to anyone here," Carrick says. "It's a party. I like to see who's up."

Hi Everyone,

One of our great clients commented on RealSelf.com about a visit to our Waldorf office! Thanks Marvelous Mary!

http://www.realself.com/review/vi-peel-paid-350-waldorf-maryland-dr-hakkis-office 

“I Paid $350 in Waldorf, Maryland with Dr. H's Office”  

"I had my peel in March 2010 and my skin was horrible before, no acne present but lots of acne scarring, dark spots from previous acne and I would not go out to the mailbox without foundation or allow my husband to see me without it, I even slept with it because I was ashamed of anyone seeing me - I am a beautiful woman but those scars actually made me look like I was ugly.

Days after I had my peel and my skin actually started peeling, I could go without makeup - it was so liberating. Go to my page on Facebook - Maria Smith (Marvelous Maria) and check me out. I'm going to get another one real soon. I don't understand these posts about the peels not being worth it, nothing these days costs what it's really worth anyway but I wonder if they would be saying the same thing if it was $50 - they would probably say it was fantastic then. Bottom line is that most people want something but don't want to pay for it. You skin is the first thing that people see when they see you so I think that improving it is worth it whatever the cost. But as with everything else, everything is not for everyone. Good luck."

 This summer, District wrinkles are under assault with the opening of D.C.’s “first ever botox boutique.” The Georgetown-based Luxxery Express Medical Spa will feature no-appointment-necessary injectable fillers for “D.C.’s on-the-go, beauty-driven community”—a local demographic that’s been ignored for too long.

The man behind the needle is Dr. Ayman Hakki, who, according to a press release, “saw two alternatives as a career: become a plastic surgeon like Ivo Pitangue whose work on Sophia Lauren popularized cosmetic surgery or become an architect like Frank Gehry whose work evokes both pop culture and high art.” Thankfully for the nomadic beauty-driven community, Hakki’s “love of beauty and the human body” won out. The choice paid off: The presser touts him as “the first D.C. metropolitan-area plastic surgeon whose artistry was featured on MTV’s ‘True Life: I Want Breast Implants.’” He’ll be available to stuff your face at 2141 Wisconsin Ave. NW starting July 1.