Dr Yusra Al-Mukhtar is an award-winning aesthetic doctor, dental surgeon, and entrepreneur renowned for her expertise in facial harmonisation, regenerative medicine, and natural-looking aesthetic results. With over 16 years of clinical experience and training from leading institutions including King’s College London and Imperial College London, she has become one of the UK’s most respected voices in aesthetic medicine. Founder of acclaimed clinics across London, Liverpool, and Manchester, Dr Yusra has been named “Best Medical Aesthetic Practitioner” in the UK for three consecutive years and is celebrated for her innovative, science-led approach to beauty, wellness, and longevity.
Kaniz Ali: Tell us more about your background
Dr Yusra: I’m a dental surgeon by background, though my academic journey took me across three exceptional universities. I completed my dental surgery degree at King’s College London, followed by medical science and healthcare management at Imperial College London, and a postgraduate certificate in skin ageing and aesthetic medicine at the University of Manchester. I then went on to complete an MBA Certificate from Babson College in the United States, one of the world’s leading business schools, because I always believed that clinical excellence and leadership needed to sit alongside each other.
Before establishing my clinics, I spent three years working and training in oral and maxillofacial surgery across various trauma training hospitals in London, which gave me a deep foundation in facial anatomy, surgical precision, and confidence in emergency care. That grounding shapes everything I do in aesthetics today. I’ve now spent over 16 years in clinical practice, and my clinics operate across London’s Fitzrovia, Liverpool, and Manchester. I’m proud to have been awarded Best Medical Aesthetic Practitioner in the UK three years running, including in 2023, 2024, and 2025, and Best Clinic for three consecutive years. To be nationally and internationally recognised for our work is an honour I don’t take lightly, and I will forever continue to work hard to deliver the best possible care.
Kaniz Ali: What inspired you to become an aesthetics doctor?
Dr Yusra: Honestly, it was patients. Very early in my career I noticed how profoundly the way someone feels about their appearance impacts their confidence, their relationships, and their entire sense of self. This started at the age of 8 when I had an accident that left me with facial trauma and a severe laceration of my lip and lower face that led to a scar that I was bullied about for some time. I knew from then that I would go into facial aesthetic medicine in some way or another, and had an immense desire to help people feel confident in their own skin. This was really cemented when I developed acne at 16 and struggled with it for decades before delving deep into understanding how to manage scarring. My surgical background gave me a deep appreciation for facial anatomy and the artistry of transformation, as well as facial harmonising and balancing. Aesthetic medicine allowed me to extend that philosophy across the whole face and beyond. I was drawn to the intersection of medicine, artistry, and psychology. I wanted to be part of a discipline where science and beauty aren’t in opposition — they’re in conversation. Aesthetic medicine is not skin deep, and we now know scientifically the importance of the link between skin and longevity. No organ lives in isolation from the others. The whole body is connected, and what we put in our mouths and on our skin has the ability to improve or negatively impact biological ageing. I love that I can help my patients to live longer, healthier, more confident lives.
Kaniz: What does your clinic specialise in?
Dr Yusra: We are a full-spectrum medical aesthetic clinic, and I use the word “medical” deliberately. Everything we do is grounded in clinical rigour. We specialise in facial harmonisation, advanced injectables, skin health, body contouring, weight loss, hair loss, vulvovaginal health, and menopause care. Our team includes dental surgeons, medical doctors, a consultant gynaecologist, nurse prescribers, pharmacist prescribers, and more. This means we can treat our patients as part of a multidisciplinary team and support them with the right experts for each relevant concern.
Our signature approach, Full Face Harmonisation and Profile Balancing, is about reading the face as a whole never treating in isolation to ensure harmony in the results. We assess the face holistically and treat it as a whole, keeping results natural-looking. I have performed over 10,000 non-surgical rhinoplasty procedures and have a real interest in rhinoplasty and profile balancing to ensure the face is balanced and beautiful from all angles.
We also offer treatments including CO₂ laser resurfacing, Erbium Glass laser, and the Thulium Moxi Lase MD treatment, as well as polynucleotides, CoolSculpting, Emsculpt Neo, Endolift jaw tightening, and skin peels. Together, these allow us to deliver a truly bespoke, highly personalised treatment plan for our patients. Ultimately, we treat patients we do not follow meaningless trends.
Kaniz Ali: What are your greatest strengths as an aesthetic practitioner?
Dr Yusra: My eyes and my hands! I’ve spent 16 years honing my skills and have developed expertise across surgical training, artistry, and clinical practice. There is no shortcut to skills development, and through rigorous and continuous training, I’ve learned how to assess the face, create artistry, and enhance whilst maintaining natural outcomes. Aesthetic medicine is a deep passion for me, and that passion has powered me through the hardest times, keeping my focus on patient care and delivering the best outcomes. I never stop learning and believe in being the perpetual student — I’m constantly upskilling and teaching my team, readingand researching, and attending and contributing to national and international conferences. Complacency in healthcare is dangerous. I refuse to let it in.
Beyond technique, I think my greatest strength is my ability to listen, to truly hone in on what patients want, and to deliver real, no-nonsense, honest, bespoke care. I can sit with a patient and understand not just what they want physically, but what’s driving the request emotionally. I don’t treat features alone I treat people. That clinical empathy shapes every treatment plan I create.
Kaniz Ali: What advice would you give to someone just starting their own business?
Dr Yusra: Do the inner work before you do the business plan. Know your why viscerally, not just intellectually because entrepreneurship will test you in ways no interview question can prepare you for. Then invest in your brand as much as your skillset. Have the humility to understand you will go through immense growing pains. If you can, don’t go alone. Get a mentor. Understand your numbers. And please, don’t try to be everything to everyone. Niche down, deliver an unquestionable skill set brilliantly, and let your reputation do the heavy lifting. Build a team you trust, early. Hire slow, fire fast. Having the right people around you who share your ethos, understand your vision, and work with the same values is incredibly important. Your team can make or break you, so choose well. You cannot scale alone, andtrying to will cost you your health.
Kaniz: What are your favourite treatments and why?
Dr Yusra: Without question, my absolute favourite right now is our BabyFace Laser and Skinbooster treatment and I say that as someone who has had it myself. It’s a beautifully engineered combination protocol: we begin with Glass Laser skin resurfacing for genuine skin renewal, texture improvement, reduction in pigmentation, and improvement in skin tone and radiance, followed by our BabyGlow injectable skinboosters, which deliver a bespoke blend of amino acids and vitamins directly into the skin for that deeply dewy, lit-from-within hydration. For patients with heavy jowls, we combine this with Endolift for fat reduction in heavy lower faces and Sculptra for skin tightening and renewal in the upper face. The result is something that genuinely has to be seen and felt to be understood. Your skin looks rested, radiant, and healthy in a way that’s hard to attribute to any one single thing. Which is the point. It works on every level simultaneously.
I’m also deeply passionate about functional aesthetics and regenerative treatments. We now have a range of tools designed to reverse-engineer ageing, improve biological ageing, and support skin longevity. This includes topical peptides in skincare, polynucleotides and PDRN science, and regenerative biostimulators like Sculptra, Julierne, and Radiesse. CO₂ laser resurfacing remains one of the most powerful tools in my clinic for long-term skin renewal and can literally rewind skin ageing. But BabyFace HydraGlass is the one I come back to personally, time and again. When a treatment makes you happy to smile with confidence, that tells you everything.
Kaniz: What do you enjoy most about being a doctor?
Dr Yusra: The privilege of it, honestly. People come to me at their most vulnerable, trusting me with something deeply personal. That responsibility never feels routine. And then there’s the moment a patient sees themselves after a treatment and something shifts in their eyes that’s irreplaceable. I also love the intellectual challenge. Medicine, dental medicine, and aesthetic medicine never let you get bored. There’s always a new technique, a new study, a new patient who requires a fresh way of thinking.
Kaniz: Where do you see yourself in 5 years’ time?
Dr Yusra: Expanding thoughtfully and empowering the next generation of leaders. I would love to work more in the Middle East, a region I feel a deep personal connection to. I teach and train nationally and internationally and believe that people at the top collaborate and grow meaningfully together. Not enough women are supporting each other, collaborating, and working in empowering leadership roles, and I would really love to be part of the change I want to see.
I am in conversations about some exciting wellness and aesthetic partnerships with luxury hospitality brands, and I see that space growing significantly. In five years, I want the Dr Yusra brand to be synonymous not just with exceptional results, but with raising the standard of the entire industry.
Kaniz: How do you set your business apart from others in your industry?
Dr Yusra: We don’t chase trends we set standards. Every decision in my clinic, from the products we use to the way we answer the phone, is made with intention. My dental and surgical background means my respect for facial anatomy and multidisciplinary care runs deep. I invest in training my team so that every patient touchpoint not just the treatment room reflects clinical excellence and genuine care. And I think there’s something about my personal visibility that matters too. I’ve had the treatments. I share the science. I don’t gatekeep, and I keep things real. We didn’t just build a brand we built a community. I think it’s important that my patients know who I am, what I stand for, and can choose whether or not I cater to their needs. Your vibe attracts your tribe, and I think you should be yourself so people know exactly who they’re trusting and working with.
Kaniz: What is the hardest part of being an entrepreneur?
Dr Yusra: The relentlessness and loneliness of it. Being an entrepreneur means the work never fully leaves you not at dinner, not on holiday, not at 11pm when an email comes in. Learning to protect your energy, to delegate, to step away without guilt, has been one of the most important and most difficult skills I’ve had to develop. There’s also the emotional weight of leadership. Your team looks to you for direction, reassurance, and vision, even on the days you privately don’t feel certain. Maintaining that composure and consistency is genuinely demanding, particularly when you’re also raising children. I’m a mother of three, and that role is one I cannot and will not delegate. Trying to be everything to everyone has, at one stage, worn me down. Now I know better. Women are told they can do it all, all at the same time. I won’t be part of that lie that makes women feel like failures because they try to be everything to everyone. It is possible to do anything, but it’s impossible to do everything. Instead, I focus on and lean into what’s important to me: my family, my patients, my health. I know that life is to be lived in chapters, and each chapter needs to be read, loved, and understood. I’m no longer trying to do it all I know now what I can do well, and I delegate the rest, so I can show up and give the world the best of me, not just the rest of me.
Kaniz: What qualities do you think every entrepreneur should possess?
Dr Yusra: Resilience, and the professional integrity to embody your values these are non-negotiable. The ability to hear no, fall short, pivot, and get back up with your vision intact. Alongside that: emotional intelligence, because business is fundamentally about people. Clarity of vision, because without it, every decision becomes a struggle. And intellectual humility the willingness to be wrong, to learn, to ask for help. The most dangerous entrepreneur is one who thinks they have nothing left to learn.
Kaniz: Being a mother and wife, how do you balance home life and work life?
Dr Yusra: I won’t pretend I’ve perfected it I don’t think any honest woman would. What I’ve done is get very clear on my non-negotiables. There are moments that are sacred familydinners, school pick-ups, the small rituals that hold a family together and I protect those fiercely. I’ve also made peace with the fact that balance doesn’t look the same every week. Some weeks the clinic demands more. Some weeks my family needs me more. I’ve stopped measuring myself against an imaginary perfect equilibrium and started measuring myself against whether the people I love feel loved, and whether my patients feel cared for. Sometimes you have to lean in and lean out of certain aspects of your life. I love David Sedaris’s idea of life having four main gas burners health, family, friends, work. If you try to have all the burners on at the same time, you will get burnt. You’ve got to pick two, or at most three, that can fire up well, and make peace with the fact that the burner on something else needs to be switched off at certain points.
Kaniz: What sets you apart from other practitioners?
Dr Yusra: There are lots of practitioners I love and respect, so that’s a question someone else should answer! I think what’s unique is depth and breadth. Not just clinical depth although21 years focused on the head and neck region is considerable but depth of relationship with my patients. I don’t just treat faces. I understand the person behind the face: their medical history, their lifestyle, their emotional relationship with their appearance, their goals, their health, their wellness. My aim, which is on my wall, is to create radiance on the outside and wellness on the inside. I believe that you cannot treat the body without understanding the mind, and you cannot treat the mind without understanding the body.
Apart from that, my commitment to my field and to education both my own ongoing learning and the industry training I deliver sets me apart. I want to empower other clinicians, particularly women in my field, to rise, develop, and contribute to this amazing profession.
Kaniz: What’s the best advice for anyone looking to enter the world of aesthetic medicine?
Dr Yusra: Train properly. I can’t say that loudly enough. This industry has a low barrier to entry, and it is doing real harm to patients and to the profession’s reputation. Invest in anatomy training. Understand the pharmacology. Find a mentor whose ethics you admire, not just whose Instagram you admire. Build your practice slowly and with integrity. The shortcuts are never actually short. And remember that you are a medical professional first beauty is the outcome, but health and safety are the foundation.
Kaniz: What do you do in your spare time to switch off?
Dr Yusra: Travel is my great reset, and I am loving learning to ski. I go with my son and I love the focused time in the crisp cold, moving my body and learning a new skill. I can’t wait to take to the Alps! There is something about immersing yourself in a completely different world that gives you perspective and fills you back up. I have a deep love for Arabia and the Far East the culture, the food, the architecture places that feel both ancient and utterly alive. Beyond travel, I find peace in beautiful spaces, exercise, and moving my body for joy rather than obligation. I absolutely love padel and Pilates they invigorate me no end. And I’ll never apologise for a very indulgent skincare evening! Professional obligation and personal pleasure, all in one.
Kaniz: If you could disappear for a month, where would you go?
Dr Yusra: The Maldives, without hesitation. I’d find a beautiful overwater villa, wake up early, spend my afternoons swimming in that impossibly clear water, and use the stillness to actually plan the kind of deep, unhurried thinking that’s almost impossible when you’re running clinics across three cities. It’s either that or the Swiss mountains. I’d come back with a fully formed vision for the next chapter, a body that’s worked out daily, and a completely restored nervous system. That, to me, is the perfect month.
CEO / Publisher: Zahra Saifullah
Editor-in-Chief: Nashmia Amir Butt
Creative Director: Kaniz Ali
Photography by Houssam Khtab
Make Up: Kaniz Ali
Assisted by: Brooke Amber
Styling: Yasmine Hany
Assisted by: Farrah Fayed & Longine Anoutaleb
Location: New Cairo, Egypt
Interview by Kaniz Ali
