Botox. There’s an awful lot of it these days. From the start of it’s popularity when it was approved back in 2002 all the way through to now where we can get it done anywhere from our living rooms amid piles of friends, at the hairdressers, your dentist or on the high street. The price is reasonable, it’s convenient and studies have shown that the pictures of people free of wrinkles reduces their perceived age by ten years.
So why isn’t everyone doing it?
For many, Botox® is something that they’re turning away from – it’s mass popularity and age defying results are being replaced with scepticism and frozen faces on the likes of the cast from TOWIE to people you know. This miracle drug which replaces your furrowed brows with smooth skin is being met with more and more concerns over unnatural appearances, looking fake and even headaches.
Although we first knew about Botulinum toxin type A’s muscle relaxing powers as long ago as the 50’s, it was only when the American doctor, Dr Alan Scott was experimenting with it as a cure for crossed eyes that he noticed the side-effects. From then, Botox®, the American trademark, was born and in the beginning of this century it became approved to use for cosmetic procedures.
And since then we’ve seen it’s popularity improving and lines and wrinkles everywhere being smoothed out and clocks turning back left, right and centre.
Bad Practitioners
The problem with Botox® isn’t always Botox® itself, it’s the practitioners. Shockingly, the laws around administration of this effective but powerful drug are quite relaxed. You could have Botox® from a beautician or any number of people without adequate training or any medical knowledge. It seems obvious that this can lead to problems.
If Botox® isn’t done properly, it can cause stiff, frozen looking, expressionless faces. Some people have complained feelings of tightness and even headaches. As the effects last for some months, this can be quite distressing.
It happens if you don’t understand that the face is made up of many muscles and each face is different. We all use different facial expressions, have different frown lines and are all ageing differently which is why it’s important to use a practitioner that understands the composition of the face. One person’s Botox® map will be different to another’s and yet many places use a template in order to decide where the Botox® goes! If you inject Botox® into areas that don’t need it, for example in some places on the forehead, results like eyebrows rising unnaturally happen which explains why some people, coming from the same “reputable” practitioner look great and others have that shocked look.
“Bad Botox®” (impure botulinum toxin)
But then there’s the actual Botox® – it can be clean or dirty and refining it is difficult and expensive. Dirty Botox® varies in strength and is full of impurities that can have horrid consequences. A lot of the reputable European and American suppliers are cutting off the these practitioners leaving them with no choice than to seek out the more dubious suppliers from places like Indonesia and China – a lot of which is toxic and dangerous. And if it poisons you – there’s no comeback.
It makes the prospect of Botox® seem quite daunting. In fact, why would you bother knowing all of that?
Good Botox®, Good Practitioners
In the right hands, Botox® can have wonderful effects. Treated with respect and used minimally by the right medial professional, Botox® can free us of some of our wrinkles and smooth our faces out. The key here is that less is more and applied wisely will not remove expression from faces. You won’t have tight feeling skin, or headaches. In fact, there is research to suggest that Botox® can actually help with headaches and some feelings of depression (but that’s a blog for another time).
I can understand why people are turning away from Botox® – who wants to look unnatural and expressionless? But the Doctors Laser Clinic consider the application of Botox® an art form. Each face is unique and each treatment they do is unique. As a newcomer to Botox®, I’m happy to confirm that nobody has noticed mine – my once wrinkly forehead is now smooth (but not tight) and I have no desire to go back to my permanent frown.
