Dr. Dendy Engelman
SHOP MY BAG:
DR. DENDY
ENGELMAN
The New York dermatologist with high-tech finesse.
- Written by
- Laura Regensdorf
Medicine was destiny for Dr. Dendy Engelman, who grew up in Charleston, South Carolina, with a live-in role model: “I was going to do general medicine like my dad,” she says. But even the best laid plans benefit from a little course correction, as she found herself drawn to a fast-evolving specialty during med school. “I joke that my dad was the only parent in the world who’s ever been upset that his daughter matched in dermatology.” Still, she gets it. Dermatology, once the subdued province of skin checks and cortisone creams, looked different 50 years ago. “There were no lasers, no Mohs surgery, no injectables,” says Dr. Engelman, a notable expert in all three. “We’ve seen a true explosion in our field, where almost every six to eight months there’s something new and kind of revolutionary.”
Dr. Engelman sees all of that dynamism in her practice at Shafer Clinic, the seven-story aesthetics hub run by the plastic surgeon Dr. David Shafer. “It’s the Taj Mahal of beauty in New York—it’s insane,” she says, explaining how the lasers alone span two floors. Come the start of the year, that comes in handy. “It’s certainly laser season for us—January comes back like guns a-blazing,” she says of the impulse to reset and repair. Dr. Engelman has done studies on injectables for the FDA and regularly consults on leading-edge technologies, arguably shaping what we’ll take for granted in years to come.
As a member of the VIOLET GREY Committee tasked with testing new launches, Dr. Engelman has a similar front-row seat to skin care—a subject that animates both her patients and her 7-year-old. “My daughter is as girly as they come, which I love and kind of secretly prayed for,” the dermatologist quips, recalling her own make-believe spa days as a kid in her parents’ Jacuzzi. The tween beauty phenomenon highlights the need for education—“I see barrier disruption and acne and all the fallout from them overusing products,” Dr. Engelman says—but there’s a positive spin. “They’re all using sunscreen now, which is amazing.” Find her skin care picks and more in her judiciously edited BAG.