Melissa Gibbens

As a trainer in the medical industry, Melissa Gibbens cut her teeth in leading-edge aesthetic treatments. Back then, some people thought she was crazy, said the nurse injector. Though paid to do the work, traveling to train doctors and nurses before striking out on her own, she had a first-line view on injectables that changed what you saw on the surface in tandem with what you did not. It was possible then, twenty years ago, to heal skin from within. She only had to convince her audience.

Sensational Skin

Before she was the owner of Melissa Gibbens Aesthetics & Wellness and a board certified nurse practitioner, she was just Missi, a nickname she still prefers. Born in Hemphill, Texas, she was raised with her family who owned a seed, farm, and western wear store going back generations. Missi’s aunt, Martha Turner, would go on to own one of the largest real estate firms in the nation, eventually mentoring her niece in sales, but that would come after Missi earned a Bachelor of Health and Wellness Promotion from Texas State University.

Immediately recruited by L’Oreal to work as a clinical educator, it was not long before Merz Aesthetics, a medical device company, scooped her up. With Merz, she would become a leading trainer, helping to introduce dermal fillers and other injectable treatments such as Xeomin, Belotero, Radiesse, and Asclera to the medical community. With Turner as a mentor, she excelled, but Missi credits her background in education with her success as well.

“I’ve always been a teacher by nature,” she said. Shining in her medical fieldwork, Missi decided to head back to school to become a medical professional herself, earning her associate’s, bachelor’s, and eventually her master’s in nursing. Continuous upskilling remained a theme in her life for good reason.

“It’s not all the time that things go right that define a practitioner. It’s the times that things go wrong,” she said. “That is when you need to have the knowledge, capability, and tools to fix something. That’s what people don’t talk about.” Missi said she spent enough time as the person people called to help them fix those unexpected problems to understand that.

Armed with top qualifications, Missi opened a MedSpa called Skinscriptions in 2012, but quickly decided she wanted to do things differently. Rather than rely only on products to plump the skin before reabsorption, she wanted to provide more holistic treatments. It was part of a worldview she could not shake. The medical field itself cried out to her, in a way, begging for change. “I was kind of turned off by my studies, and I thought that there was a more honest and healing way to treat someone, rather than throwing medications at them,” she said. Rebranding as Melissa Gibbens Aesthetics & Wellness allowed her to forge a new path.

Jaw-Dropping Results

Rather than compensate for changing skin, Missi believes in restoring the functionality of the tissue to help your body regenerate collagen and elastin. “We believe anti-aging starts from within,” said Missi. “With biostimulatory or regenerative fillers, we’re using products and materials that make your body produce more collagen and repair and restore the skin health versus just filling it up. We can pull one off the shelf or use your own stem cells, spinning them down to make a platelet-rich plasma which is native to your own body for use as a biofiller for your body.”

Among the 20 lasers and devices in her office, three new ones were added at the end of 2023, including the Observ 520, a tool to detect skin damage and precancerous lesions, asymmetry, and the resurfacing tools from Sciton, Halo and TRL. “People say, ‘Oh my god. It looks like a spaceship,’” said Missi, describing clients stepping into her office.

Education, just as much as cutting-edge technology, is what she prioritizes and encourages for those around her. Medical professionals even join her at her training institution, the Regenerative Center of Excellence, learning how to inject biostimulatory fillers and perform certain laser treatments.

“This is science,” said Missi. “Let’s measure it and then do the treatment, and then measure it again so we can see if we did what we said we were going to,” she said. Precision-guided delivery, including the use of ultrasound and radiofrequency in new ways, contributes to excellent outcomes, but more than this, her conservative philosophy of treatment makes Missi’s practice a proactive, whole-body-centered institution people trust.

Eternal Youth

If Missi holds the keys to a youthful appearance, it may be because of her commitment to a youthful mind. “I always say, ‘Those who train, remain,’ because you constantly have to be hungry for more knowledge … I always say that what you learned yesterday is old news. We’re constantly learning and changing. Especially in medicine,” said Missi.

As a trainer, she’s learned the immense value in pushing yourself into settings where you may find yourself being “the dumbest person in the room,” she said, “because you always pick up another pearl or another tool.” Missi also easily cites new patient needs as reasons to continue learning. The recent popularity of semaglutide, for example, makes weight loss attainable for many patients, but can lead to facial wasting from such large amounts of weight lost in so short a time, she told us. Total facial rejuvenation and balance can be restored, but only educated practitioners can do the job well.

By aligning the path to health with the look of beauty, Missi breaks the mold. Clients approve of the approach with their repeat business, and Missi told us they should also look out for major announcements later this year. “We can make someone look better, but internally, if they’re not functioning properly, they’re not going to look as good as they can,” she said. As always, she posits, beauty is far more than skin deep.