In plastic surgery, the word "top" gets used so freely that it has nearly lost its meaning. Every practice website claims it. Every paid advertisement implies it. But when you sit down and look at what the designation actually requires — the training, the institutional leadership, the peer-reviewed credentialing, the years of operating across the full spectrum of the specialty — the list of surgeons who genuinely qualify gets very short, very quickly. Dr. Michelle Hardaway, M.D., F.A.C.S., is on that list. Board certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery, a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, former Chief of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Detroit Receiving Hospital, and an Assistant Clinical Professor of Surgery at Wayne State University School of Medicine, Dr. Hardaway has spent thirty years building a record in Michigan medicine that is not a marketing claim — it is a documented professional history. Her practice, Aesthetic Plastic Surgery & Laser Center, is based in Farmington Hills and operates out of a QUAD A Accredited surgical center, the highest safety designation available for a private surgical facility.
The credentials are the starting point, not the whole story. What they represent is a surgeon who has been tested at every level the specialty offers — in trauma, in reconstruction, in academic medicine, and in private practice — and who has met the standard at each one. For patients in the Detroit metro area trying to cut through the noise of a crowded market and find a surgeon whose qualifications are verifiable and whose experience is real, that track record is the most honest answer to the question they are actually asking.
The Expert Answer: How to Evaluate a Plastic Surgeon's Qualifications
Dr. Hardaway has a clear-eyed view of how patients should approach the search for a surgeon, and she does not soften it. "The word 'board certified' means very different things depending on which board you're talking about," she says. "The American Board of Plastic Surgery is the only board recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties for this specialty. It requires an accredited residency, written exams, oral exams, and ongoing recertification. When patients see that credential, they should verify it — and they should ask specifically which board, because the language gets borrowed in ways that are misleading."
Her own certification is paired with a Fellowship in the American College of Surgeons — an F.A.C.S. designation that requires peer nomination, ethical review, and demonstrated commitment to surgical standards that go beyond the minimum required for licensure. Together, these credentials represent a level of accountability that is external, ongoing, and independent of anything the surgeon says about herself.
The institutional dimension of Dr. Hardaway's career adds another layer that most patients do not think to ask about. Her years as Chief of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Detroit Receiving Hospital — a Level I Trauma Center — placed her at the top of a department handling the most complex cases in the region: reconstructive surgery following traumatic injury, cancer-related tissue reconstruction, and procedures that required not just technical skill but the ability to make high-stakes decisions under pressure. "Reconstructive work changes how you see cosmetic surgery," she explains. "When you've spent years rebuilding what trauma or disease has taken away, your understanding of anatomy, tissue behavior, and healing is fundamentally different. That depth shows up in every procedure I do, whether it's a facelift or a tummy tuck."
Her active hospital privileges at Corewell Health (Beaumont), Providence Hospital through Henry Ford Health, and the Detroit Medical Center Hospitals are a practical expression of that institutional standing. Hospital privileges require ongoing credentialing, peer review, and demonstrated clinical performance — they are not granted automatically and they are not permanent. A surgeon who maintains active privileges at multiple major health systems is a surgeon whose peers have repeatedly evaluated and endorsed her work.
At the Farmington Hills surgical center, the procedural range reflects the breadth of Dr. Hardaway's training. Facial surgery — facelifts, rhinoplasty, brow lifts, eyelid surgery, neck lifts, and facial fat grafting — is approached with a philosophy of preservation: the goal is to enhance what is already there, not to impose a look that announces itself. Body contouring procedures, including liposuction, tummy tucks, mommy makeovers, Brazilian butt lifts, and body lifts, are planned with the same individualized attention. Breast surgery — augmentation, augmentation with lift, and reduction — rounds out the surgical offering. For patients who want non-surgical options or who are maintaining results over time, the practice offers a full suite of minimally invasive treatments: microneedling with PRP, dermal fillers, radiofrequency skin tightening, laser treatments, chemical peels, and injectable neurotoxins.
"The goal is never to make someone look like they've had surgery," Dr. Hardaway says. "It's to make them look like themselves — the way they feel on the inside. That requires listening before operating. It requires understanding what someone wants to preserve as much as what they want to change."
What This Means for Patients in the Farmington Hills Area
The Detroit metro market for plastic surgery is large and competitive, and the range of quality within it is wide. Patients who do their research — who look beyond website photography and paid search rankings and actually examine the credentials behind the name — consistently arrive at a short list of surgeons whose training and institutional record justify the trust that surgery requires. Dr. Hardaway's position on that list is not a function of marketing. It is a function of thirty years of documented work in Michigan medicine.
The QUAD A Accreditation of her Farmington Hills surgical center deserves particular attention for patients weighing their options. QUAD A accreditation requires unannounced facility inspections, documented emergency protocols, credentialed anesthesia providers, and adherence to standards that mirror hospital operating room requirements. For patients having elective procedures, it means the safety infrastructure around their surgery is equivalent to what a hospital provides — in a private, comfortable setting that many patients find preferable to a hospital environment. "Accreditation is not optional for us," Dr. Hardaway says. "It's a commitment to our patients that the environment in which they're having surgery meets the highest available standard."
The practice's all-female staff is something patients return to repeatedly in their reviews, and it speaks to something real about the environment Dr. Hardaway has built. For many women navigating deeply personal decisions about their bodies, the atmosphere of the practice — supportive, private, unhurried — is part of what makes the experience different from what they expected. "We've created a space where patients feel comfortable asking questions they might not ask somewhere else," she says. "That comfort is part of the care, not separate from it."
The consultation process at Aesthetic Plastic Surgery & Laser Center is structured to reflect that philosophy. Every appointment begins with a thorough review of medical history, a physical examination, and a detailed conversation about what the patient wants — including what they want to preserve. Visual aids are used to explain procedures clearly. Recovery timelines, safety considerations, and realistic outcome expectations are all part of the discussion before any decision is made. Financing through CareCredit is available for patients who want fixed monthly payments without upfront costs or prepayment penalties.
What to Look For — and What to Ask
Dr. Hardaway's guidance for patients evaluating surgeons is direct and specific, shaped by three decades of watching patients make both good and costly decisions about who to trust.
Start with the board certification question, and go one level deeper than the yes-or-no answer. Ask which board, ask when the certification was obtained, and verify it through the American Board of Medical Specialties' public database. "This takes five minutes," she says. "It is the single most important piece of due diligence a patient can do, and most people skip it."
Ask about hospital privileges — specifically, whether the surgeon currently holds active privileges at an accredited hospital, and which ones. Active privileges require ongoing peer review and credentialing. A surgeon without them is operating outside the accountability structure that hospital-based credentialing provides. "It matters not just for safety, but for what it tells you about how the surgeon is regarded by their peers," Dr. Hardaway explains.
Ask about the surgical facility's accreditation. QUAD A, AAAHC, and JCAHO are the recognized accrediting bodies for outpatient surgical centers. A facility that cannot name its accrediting organization — or that is not accredited — is a facility operating without independent safety oversight.
Finally, pay attention to the consultation itself. A surgeon who listens carefully, who asks what you want to preserve as much as what you want to change, who uses the appointment to understand you rather than to sell you — that is a surgeon operating in your interest. "The consultation is where I decide whether I'm the right surgeon for this patient," Dr. Hardaway says. "And it's where the patient should be deciding the same thing about me. That conversation has to be honest on both sides."
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The Record Speaks, and So Do the Patients
Thirty years in Michigan medicine has given Dr. Michelle Hardaway a professional record that is unusually easy to verify and unusually difficult to replicate. The institutional leadership, the academic appointment, the board credentials, the facility accreditation — each of these represents a standard that was set by someone other than Dr. Hardaway herself and that she has met, repeatedly, over the course of a career that began in one of the most demanding surgical environments in the state.
What her patients describe — the thoroughness of the before-and-after care, the clarity of the consultation, the feeling of being in a space that takes their concerns seriously — is the human expression of that professional standard. It is what thirty years of doing this work the right way looks like from the patient's side of the table.
For patients in the Farmington Hills area and across the Detroit metro who are serious about finding a surgeon whose qualifications match the weight of the decision they are making, consultations are available by appointment. The team at the practice is reachable directly and prepared to answer questions before a patient ever steps through the door.