In this episode of The Beauty Equation Podcast, Dr. Christelle Oliver-Dussault, Dr. Harpreet Lotay, and Amanda Manholt explore what it really means to age gracefully. They unpack the societal pressures women face around beauty standards, the value of patient-centered consultations, and how cultural perspectives shape choices about aging. The conversation emphasizes vitality, health, and self-perception over appearance alone, highlighting a holistic approach to aging that honors both personal experience and individuality.

About the Hosts:

Dr. Harpreet Lotay is a family physician specializing in aesthetic medicine. She is the founder of Sona MD in Kamloops, BC, and serves as Chief Medical Officer at Bios Wellness Clinics. Known for her artistic approach and comprehensive non-surgical treatments, Dr. Lotay combines medical expertise with an eye for natural results. She is also an educator, a national trainer and holds academic appointments where she shares her knowledge in clinical dermatology and aesthetics. You can get in touch with her on Instagram @hlotaymd

Dr. Christelle Oliver-Dussault is a family physician specializing in aesthetic medicine, women’s health, and psycho-education. She brings a holistic, whole-person perspective to her clinical work, blending science with a deep understanding of the mind-body connection.

She is also the founder of Reclaim The Pink Within, a movement that empowers women to rediscover themselves during life’s most transformative stages. In addition, she is passionate about medical education and mentors the next generation of family physicians through her work with the department of Family Medicine at the University of British Columbia.

You can connect with her on Instagram @drchristellemd

Amanda Manholt is a clinic manager, patient consultant, and co-host of The Beauty Equation Podcast. With over 30 years of experience in beauty, aesthetics, and leadership, she has guided patients and teams alike toward confidence, growth, and empowerment. Known for her ability to connect with people and simplify the often-overwhelming world of aesthetics, Amanda brings a warm, practical, and relatable perspective to every conversation. You can find her on Instagram @crowsfeetandconfidence.

Websites

https://sonamd.ca/

https://www.getyourpinkbackproject.com/

Disclaimer: The Beauty Equation is for informational purposes only and not medical advice. This podcast does not create a doctor–patient relationship. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before making medical or aesthetic decisions. Information may change as the field evolves.

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I think when I think about aging gracefully, to me,

kind of aligns with being as healthy as we can and

as vital as we can at any age. So for me, and this

is just my own personal bias, I would rather see somebody

lose volume and have lines, gray hair, but have

beautiful skin. To your point, like to see that, because to me,

that looks radiant and healthy. When I think about

somebody that has had volume restored and done those sort

of immediate things, but their skin looks like, I'm sorry, a paper bag

that's been rolled up into a ball and then smoothed out again, my

bias doesn't feel like that is graceful aging.

I feel like you've got things that are not aligned.

Welcome back to the beauty equation. I'm Dr. Christelle Oliver Dussault.

And I'm Dr. Harpreet Lotte. And I'm Amanda Manholt.

Today we're going to be diving into a phrase that we've all heard before, and

we've probably rolled our eyes at, I want to age gracefully.

But what does that even mean? Literally have that

in a consult today. Sorry. Before we go into that, though, there was

two things that we forgot to touch on the last episodes,

so I wanted to bring them up. So the first is, some of you may

have seen our logo and may have noticed a particular

sequence within the logo, if you are a math nerd, like

my best friend is. And that was the first thing she noticed and. And said,

I am so happy that you guys put that in there. Harpreet, do you want

to tell the audience a little bit about what we've hidden into our logo

and why we decided to do that? Yeah, it's the Fibonacci

sequence. So it's a universal

mathematical ratio and sequence that you find in

nature and all over if you look for it. And

it's, you know, it's something that resonates with human

beings, and we view that as beautiful. And when you start

breaking down facial balance, facial beauty,

you'll find that sequence in that. You'll find it in

many other beautiful things. And

it's often referred to as the golden ratio as well. So,

you know, we thought that was quite relevant. And it's always

resonated with me. In fact, when I opened up our clinic,

Sona, you know, sona means gold in a Northern

Indian language and that, you know, references the

Fibonacci sequence, and we find gold beautiful. And so

this was a nice little time in when we were looking for a logo. So.

Yeah, thanks. And in case anyone was wondering or had noticed, It. That's why we

did that. For now, let's dive into today's topic. Amanda, why don't you

start with that consult that you had today and that conversation you had?

Yeah, it's. It comes up so often because, you know, women come

to see us, and they'll often see myself first,

and many times, many times they have yet

to have put their toe into the medical aesthetics world.

And there just always seems to be a little bit of apprehension, a little bit

of nervousness, a little bit of shyness when they first sit down with me. And

I think maybe they're wondering, like, am I in the right place?

Am I the kind of person that does this? You know, what am I even

doing? And really, I love

those conversations. It's just an opportunity to explore and to, you

know, to get to know what it is that's on their mind, what they'd like

to see. And so often it comes

up that, look, I'm not trying to look like I'm 20.

I just. I want to age gracefully. And it feels like

this phrase that we lean on

when we don't know how to say what we want, but we know

we don't want to not look like ourselves. It's fascinating

to me. I think it's a phrase that you actually hear

used by women, but also I'm going to say almost

against women, too, because it's so nebulous and so

sort of fine line. Ish, that as a woman

out there, how do you toe that line without crossing the

line? And, you know, what does crossing the line mean?

You know, this idea of graceful aging. You know,

you're either look too young or too old

or too unkempt. I don't even know what that means, you know,

So I feel sometimes it's almost used

against us. But then we use that same verbiage to express that

we're. We're doing the right thing, whatever that means, you know?

Yeah. And I think a lot of the time we want to age

gracefully so that we remain seen in the public

eye. I. And don't seem like we've let ourself go

or don't matter anymore, because in

Western culture, we do have a bit of an ageist culture

where the maturity isn't valued like it

is in other cultures. Isn't valued. And you.

So we try to mimic that with the way that we look.

Yeah, yeah. And. And one of the things I'll often say is,

well, I find it interesting because

I can remember my grandmother saying something to that effect.

And I Just feel like we have different tools

now. But I think that's the importance of the

consult really, is trying to

get to what aging

gracefully means for that particular person in front of you. Right.

And I think that's what I love the most about what I

get to do. Yeah. You've probably noticed this, Dr. Lotte,

the aesthetic norm and what is deemed beautiful,

that. That changes over centuries, millennia. But we've really

noticed it even in the last 10, 20 years, how quickly that

shifts. Yeah. How have you found that

in your practice in terms of what people are seeking

or the conversations that you're having with them? Well, I think

people have always really sought to stay themselves.

I think that's been a constant. Although, you know, lately in the

Instagram age, there's been more focus on looking like, you

know, a famous celebrity, let's just say. And

aspects of our face have become the thing that

you go get, like, I'm gonna go get the lips, et cetera. So

that's a relatively recent thing, but, you know, I've been

practicing medical aesthetics for over 20 years now, and

I think the who came to us always wanted to

look like themselves. But our understanding of aesthetics and

facial. Facial aging and how we use the

tools we have has changed

enormously. I mean, think back to, you know, 1950s,

30s. I mean, people did things. It's not like they

didn't do things. They had poor tools. You know, people were using

silicone, you know, or. Or,

like cow collagen, you know, which gives a very high inflammatory

react. And. And so our tools have changed. So has

our understanding. And so now we can meet the needs of those

people who are still coming to us saying, I want to look fresh,

I want to look relevant. I don't want to look angry, I don't want to

look tired, but please don't make me look like someone else.

Right. Yeah. And I think that's something that we've always

tried to do, but the more we learn

about the anatomy and the physiology, the

better we can guide them. I also. I always remember because I

did this, and I think my generation did. We all had the very

skinny, skinny eyebrows in the 2000s. Well, I did that, too, girl.

Yeah. And you're not alone. Yeah. And it took a

good while for them to grow back. And I know a lot of

women my age still feel like their eyebrows haven't grown back.

But that applies to the treatments people are getting,

because when you think about, say, you mentioned the lips, like, Russian lips are this

big trend, but that doesn't Stop. Suit every frame.

Some people were naturally meant to have larger lips based on their

bone structure and their. Their muscular anatomy, and it

looks really good. Others should never have lips that big. It just

doesn't fit the frame. And I think that's where we have

a lot of. A lot of responsibility. If someone comes in with a photo to

be like, you know, this is how I want to enhance this part

of my appearance. You have to have that conversation,

okay, I understand where you want to go, but that might not fit.

And trying to guide them and give them advice so that they

don't, you know, end up looking in the mirror and then having that shock of,

oh, wait, no, that. That's not what I wanted. So I think one

aspect of grace is that things look harmonious. Right,

exactly. And. And it fits. So I think that could be considered

one aspect of it for sure. Yeah. Which comes, you know, when you think

about facial harmony, the Fibonacci, all

of that. It's so. It's so fun to look and be able to

understand and. And look at a face

and kind of suss it out and realize,

okay, actually it's the chin

or it's, you know, the temples, something like that. It's a lot of these

really subtle things. The other thing that's always said is,

make me look better, but don't make it obvious and

don't make me look weird. Right. And I'm like,

okay, here you go, docs. So here's, you know, Mrs. Smith,

and she wants to look great and age gracefully,

but nobody should know she's done anything,

you know, So I don't know if that's something you can talk to,

talk about. You're both so skilled

at that. I think it's really hard to make someone look done,

like, when you see and notice work. Like, especially if I think about people

who come in and get fillers. Like, I want to get a little bit of

enhancement, but I don't want people to realize.

I am often shocked when I see work and I can

notice, like, people who aren't in our industry can notice it. And I'm like,

how much product was used to achieve that? Oh, I think

it's easy to make somebody look weird. I think it's easy

to be a. Little bit in the wrong spot. Fair enough.

Anatomically, doesn't belong there, for sure.

I think the challenge when people make that statement is that subtlety means

different things to different people, just like grace. And, you know,

it may be subtle changes in a particular feature that

they super identify with. Let's take like

a cleft chin. Right. Or a little dimple that people have in

the chin. You know, I. If you were to inject that

with a very little product, you could create a very subtle change

that nobody would notice, but it would be so obvious to the

person and make them feel, not look like themselves.

So I think that the. That's one aspect

of aesthetic medicine that we often don't talk about. It's not just about

injecting. It's also about understanding

visual perception of your patient. And

that involves, like art, visual skill, noticing you

noticing, but then being able to talk to the person and

understanding what they're telling you and helping them notice what

they notice. Right. So it's this, it's. It's interesting.

I find that where the photos come in so handy, especially like before and

after, sometimes they'll notice something at the follow up that wasn't there

and they didn't think that was there initially. Always been

there all along. But now that the first issue that they came in to

discuss has been tweaked and their eye

now leans in on something else. Well, and I think,

Christelle, to your comment about how you find it difficult for

people to look like you think, how much

product must they have used to look weird? I think it just speaks to the

fact that your eye is so good and you are

very thoughtful about what you use and where. Thank

you. Right. Yeah. There's people out there that

unfortunately, whether don't have the skill or they

don't recognize or don't take the time to assess the

face. Yeah. And I think that's where it goes sideways.

Yeah. And I think that takes time. I've definitely noticed that

with the years of injecting, the

style of injecting. My style of injecting has changed and I've tweaked and I've

learned along the way, like you would in any industry.

For sure. For sure. And things do change.

To your point. We had thin eyebrows in the

90s, and now that's not a thing. Eyebrows

kind of can grow back, so that's a good thing. And I think the perception

is that some of the things that we do in aesthetics you can easily reverse.

That's not the case. We can get into that some other time. But

the thing is that cultures change, our cultural

expectations change. And the shame

around aesthetics I find interesting because I think back

to the 1960s or 50s where

coloring your hair was super taboo. It's true.

So l' Oreal had to do all this marketing and all this

cultural shifting to get people to feel okay

about using dye on their hair. So

these things change. And I think as a physician, and I'm sure for you too,

Christel, it's about maintaining

patient safety and then understanding the

patient. So you're always treating them through their values, not

yours. So, you know, we don't practice patriarchal medicine and

aesthetic medicine. It's mostly women. And we,

you know, we. We try to keep that patient centered in our

plans, I think. Yeah. Because it's funny, because

we will sometimes. I've noticed I'll sometimes see someone and

before we even talk to them, I have an idea

of what the treatment plan should be. But that often changes after

the conversation when you start to understand their goals. And

particularly. And I think, Amanda, you did this with me. When I first started

going to the clinic, I sat in a few of your consultations, and I thought

it was such a good thing to do. You sit down at the patient,

you show them their photos, and then you show certain parts of the face

and you ask them, tell me what you like, what you see, what

resonates with you. Now tell me what you feel

doesn't align with the way you see yourself

or has changed and makes you feel sad or

angry. And I've incorporated that since, and it

opens up such a wonderful conversation with people

and really helps you understand their perspective. Yeah.

And that's the beautiful thing about what we do, I think,

is allowing people the space and the safety to

explore how they're feeling about things. Right.

Do you find that women feel pressured

to look or age in a certain way when they come

into you? Oh, heck, yes.

Yeah. Where do you even start with that conversation? Just look at our

culture. Just look at our tv, our Instagram.

There's so much pressure. I think the. The most

upsetting thing is the younger ones coming in now with AI

images. Yeah. Like that's an episode

where they. Or. Or these. I'm sorry, I. I think they're

odd. These. This request to have. No, these round

lips with their natural anatomy sort of distorted or.

No, nasal. I've got, you know, 30 year olds going, oh, my God, my

nasolabial folds. And I'm thinking, where.

But when you're blowing everything out with the filter. Beautiful cheeks. Enjoy

them before they start to go. Yeah, honey,

life hasn't begun to kick you yet. But it's because we're.

They're looking at everything through filters. So

that's one change, I think. Yeah. And the pressure I feel is

ever increasing as our technology Improves. As our

tools improve, so does the pressure, I think, to.

To go even beyond that. You know, I'll

bring up the Kardashian mom. Yeah. You

know, who at 70, looks like she's 30.

And, you know, the first thing that came to my mind is, like, when

does it stop? Like, when do we get to not have the

pressure to be a certain way? Because all of these

sort of standards are becoming increasingly

more difficult to achieve without some sort of

intervention. Right. Like, look at the Golden

Girls. Yeah. I know that they look different. They were my

age, right? Yeah. I think they all had

facelifts, though. I'm just saying, because I started watching it again, and I was like,

okay, if I can just get past the hair. You know, they had

pretty decent jawlines,

so, you know, they were doing things. Well, they were doing things. But the

standard's different, right? Totally. Yeah. And I think if we just

stick to Hollywood, we're going to have a very distorted view of

what's normal and achievable. And if you

travel and look around the world, there are lots of places

where the aesthetic practice is completely different.

And you're seeing women walking around with their gray hair. They have a

few fine lines, but their skin is really healthy. And you can tell

because. Had something like, to a trained eye, you can tell they've had something

done, but it's so subtle that you really wouldn't know.

And I have to say, I'm. I have a good few friends or hairdressers, and

they're getting more and more requests to blend in their

grays and go natural. And I'm really. I'm really liking that.

I'm gonna do it. Translate into the

aesthetic field if with this movement

to age more naturally and

maintain features and have some lines and some. Something that

shows that you've gained a certain maturity.

That's a great question. I can see that, too. I think

the one thing that won't change is people will always want to

not look tired and not look angry and not

have. And unfortunately, those impressions start

to happen as just a result of normal physiologic aging.

That won't change. But I'm super interested in. In seeing

how that embrace of

age with, like, the gray hair and stuff, how that will translate. Yeah,

for sure. I think when I think about aging

gracefully, to me, kind of aligns

with being as healthy as we can and as vital as we

can at any age. So for me,

and this is just my own personal bias, I would rather see

somebody lose volume and have lines Gray

hair, but have beautiful skin.

To your point. Like to see that, because to me, that it

looks radiant and healthy.

When I think about somebody that, you know, has had volume

restored and. And done those sort of

immediate things, but their skin looks like, I'm sorry, a paper bag that's

been rolled up into a ball and then smoothed out again. My bias

doesn't feel like that is graceful aging. I feel

like you've got things that are not aligned.

Yeah. So, you know, when we talk about, okay, well,

what is aging, right? It isn't just wrinkles or brown spots. It's

wrinkles. It's brown spots. It's loss of volume, all of those things.

And so keeping things in the same decade.

Right? Yeah. The hands, you know, the hands are dead giveaway

friends. Yeah. Hands and tirkultash. Yes. I'm so glad

you said that word, because I call it decollete.

Harvey, what does aging gracefully mean to you? Oh,

I think the same thing is remaining vital. So it's a holistic

idea around how you approach the world, you know,

with a youthful attitude, a youthful

mental state, good nutrition so that your skin and

your physically, you're healthy

and then vibrant skin.

I'm going to let my hair grow gray or salt and pepper. So

I'm on that bandwagon. So

that's what it means to me. And I think the thing that I don't like

on my own face is sagginess.

Yeah. The effects. Yeah. Yeah. So. So

those are my little, you know, those are my

little things that I. I think that I would like to do

as I age. Yeah. How about you, Christo?

I think vitality is probably the best way. Amanda, you hit the nail on the

head is just yet remaining

alive inside and out and feeling

healthy on the inside, healthy on the outside.

And that ties into that whole mind, body approach. And then just

giving your body and your skin the nutrient that it needs.

And oftentimes I find

people become more beautiful as you get to know them because you

get to see that inner light shine through. And that's how I kind of.

That's how I approach aging, is that you want to.

That everything that you've learned and gained over the

year shines through. I love that. Yeah, I love

that. So on that note, aging

gracefully, what does it mean? I think we've come up with Vitality will be

our theme word for the day. If you have

any thoughts on what aging gracefully means to you, send us an email

at info at. @thebeauty equation.com

we'd love to hear your thoughts on what you think aging gracefully means. And we

will share. Yeah. And, or if you're watching this on YouTube, you can put it

in the comments. Oh, yeah, I think that would be really. I, I would love

to know what people. Yeah. I don't know. Maybe I'm totally nuts,

right? Yeah. But, yeah. So sure. Yeah. Yeah,

share either on the comments below on YouTube or on

the podcast channel, or just send us an email. I'm the one who, who's usually

looking at those. And next episode, we will be talking about

is it vain? Is it safe? Is it for me, something we

touched on a little bit today. And if you have any questions,

we will try to get through to those. Until next time. Until next time.

Bye for now.