DoctorFlocci
Well-known member
Several years ago, when the name Caroline Hirons wasn’t as infamous as it is now, a well-known London department store offered consultations with her for a fee, redeemable against any purchase made on the day.
My skin had changed quite a bit & from the little I knew of Caroline, I thought she talked some sense & seemed knowledgeable about the skincare market & products.
I booked in (& had to pay in full, in advance) and duly met CH for a skincare consultation. At the time, she was on a personal crusade against mineral oil & Bioderma micellar water. She was nice enough but demanded my medical history & wanted to know my diet and occupation.
I didn’t mind too much & duly supplied the “headlines”. I have a couple of complex, long-term medical conditions, one since childhood & another (at that time) for a decade+. My diet varied massively - as it does now - so I tried to give a rough outline.
When it came to skincare, on make-up/SPF days, I had long been in the habit of double cleansing (before ever hearing of CH) but also explained that oil/balm cleansers “upset” my contact lens (if I was wearing them) hence I tended to use a drop of micellar water on my eyelashes prior to double cleansing the rest of my face, with a flannel!
CH tutted & rolled her eyes at this last revelation and muttered “Don’t pay any attention to me then.”
She proceeded to suggest I go private & have a “scan” to find out “what’s really wrong with you…”.
I asked which scan she’d suggest: ultrasound, CT (+/- contrast), MRI, PET, nuclear scintigraphy etc & which region of the body she’d recommend getting “scanned”?
(Couldn’t hold the sarcasm back at that point).
Diet-wise, she advised I avoid the “nightshade family” as she believed that would make me “better”(!)
Product-wise: she wrote out a lengthy list of products. Some of which I already had but others of which contained her bête noire of the moment: mineral oil!
I proceeded to shop for none of the things on her list, fortunately I didn’t go to see her “privately” - at the time, she also offered “consults” at an office address in West London with none of the fee redeemable anywhere - & said department store had a really good selection of products so it was easy to get the booking fee back.
In general, I found her rather crass. Whilst I’m not a doctor (at least in the human medical field) I am a vet and I’m more than content (happy, grateful, confident) for & with the care and diagnostic efforts made by the (NHS) GPs, consultants, clinical specialist & practice nurses who’ve contributed to keeping me well over the years.
I was flabbergasted that she appeared to proffer medical & dietetic advice with no qualifications in either field. Even her skincare advice seemed contradictory.
So, in summary (congrats if you’ve made it this far!) I’d be confident she will be offering payable consults, with her, via her app. And I’m not at all sure that she should be.
My skin had changed quite a bit & from the little I knew of Caroline, I thought she talked some sense & seemed knowledgeable about the skincare market & products.
I booked in (& had to pay in full, in advance) and duly met CH for a skincare consultation. At the time, she was on a personal crusade against mineral oil & Bioderma micellar water. She was nice enough but demanded my medical history & wanted to know my diet and occupation.
I didn’t mind too much & duly supplied the “headlines”. I have a couple of complex, long-term medical conditions, one since childhood & another (at that time) for a decade+. My diet varied massively - as it does now - so I tried to give a rough outline.
When it came to skincare, on make-up/SPF days, I had long been in the habit of double cleansing (before ever hearing of CH) but also explained that oil/balm cleansers “upset” my contact lens (if I was wearing them) hence I tended to use a drop of micellar water on my eyelashes prior to double cleansing the rest of my face, with a flannel!
CH tutted & rolled her eyes at this last revelation and muttered “Don’t pay any attention to me then.”
She proceeded to suggest I go private & have a “scan” to find out “what’s really wrong with you…”.
I asked which scan she’d suggest: ultrasound, CT (+/- contrast), MRI, PET, nuclear scintigraphy etc & which region of the body she’d recommend getting “scanned”?
(Couldn’t hold the sarcasm back at that point).
Diet-wise, she advised I avoid the “nightshade family” as she believed that would make me “better”(!)
Product-wise: she wrote out a lengthy list of products. Some of which I already had but others of which contained her bête noire of the moment: mineral oil!
I proceeded to shop for none of the things on her list, fortunately I didn’t go to see her “privately” - at the time, she also offered “consults” at an office address in West London with none of the fee redeemable anywhere - & said department store had a really good selection of products so it was easy to get the booking fee back.
In general, I found her rather crass. Whilst I’m not a doctor (at least in the human medical field) I am a vet and I’m more than content (happy, grateful, confident) for & with the care and diagnostic efforts made by the (NHS) GPs, consultants, clinical specialist & practice nurses who’ve contributed to keeping me well over the years.
I was flabbergasted that she appeared to proffer medical & dietetic advice with no qualifications in either field. Even her skincare advice seemed contradictory.
So, in summary (congrats if you’ve made it this far!) I’d be confident she will be offering payable consults, with her, via her app. And I’m not at all sure that she should be.
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. You 100% do - in fact most of you actually look slightly older. One woman commented that her husband was asked if he was buying the wine and not his daughter, referring to her, a 54 year old woman. 