Dr Kaly Jaff on her aesthetics clinic The Secret in Glasgow’s Govan

Dr Kaly Jaff arrived in Scotland age 6 as a refugee and now runs a business where she supports all her family.

Transcript

00:00The Secret is ultimately a one-stop shop for health. I imagined it would be three levels.

00:07The top mezzanine would be

00:09for professionals who are wanting to develop their career in aesthetics where we have the Face Training Academy and

00:15the ground floor which is where I work is all non-surgical facial aesthetics that

00:20arrive from everything from skincare to Botox to fillers and then hopefully in the near future threads as well.

00:26And then the basement level is for everything to do with your body. So lots of skin,

00:31acupuncture, physiotherapy and we're looking into getting lymphatic drainage in as well. I wanted somewhere where you could go and

00:39you could just have the full head-to-toe experience of

00:44health.

00:46So the Secret is really like the one-stop shop to Secret to Health, but

00:51the name actually came from the fact that I do

00:55really believe that your treatments shouldn't be obvious. I want patients to walk out and people just think she's looking really good.

01:02What's her secret?

01:03Because aesthetics has got such a stigma that you have to look really botched or false or fake.

01:09And I kind of wanted to change that shift.

01:12So the name really comes from your treatments should look like a secret. People should wonder how you're looking so good.

01:20It took three and a half years to build. It was a Lloyds TSB

01:24in the year 2020 and I didn't open till March

01:282023, which is when I had my second child. So it's been a long,

01:33long labour of love, but I'm so incredibly proud of it now. I wanted somewhere that I could

01:39make sure that my family were safe.

01:41My sister is a skin therapist. My brother is the associate who does facial aesthetics as well.

01:47My mum is front of house. Now she's full-time granny at home, but she does cover front of house as well.

01:52My dad's the only one that doesn't have a job in the secret because I don't know where he would fit in in the business.

01:58But of course, he's more than welcome to come and take appointments if he likes.

02:02I just wanted somewhere that I could give them that security.

02:07My parents didn't work long enough in Kurdistan to qualify for pension because they left when they were in their 30s.

02:14But they also have haven't had a long enough career in the UK to qualify for a pension. So the

02:21the suffering of them having to leave is still manifesting now as they age.

02:26My mum is coming up to 71 and she can't work anymore.

02:31But she doesn't have a pension either. So I

02:35wanted to create somewhere where I could then look after her.

02:39Likewise for my siblings as well. I don't want them working somewhere where they could be mistreated or

02:45not be able to dictate their times. My brother really likes to go to the gym in the morning.

02:49So I let him start at 10. And so, yes, very much a family run business.

02:54And sometimes that's really tough. But I feel like I'm a fair boss.