Like Virgin, Botoxed For The Very First Time...

I’ve only had Botox twice but I’m mighty pleased with the results.


Why I did it
While I didn’t have major lines, the crows feet and the mid-eyebrow cranky line were definitely getting me down. Photos of me smiling revealed crows feet aplenty and, because I’m fond of a good frown, the line between my eyebrows was threatening to take up permanent residence. When people were taking photos of me I’d started to think, “Oooh, better not smile. It makes me look wrinkly.”

I still have an image of an old teacher in my head, a lovely woman, who had perma-wrinkle between her eyebrows regardless of whether she was happy or sad. Very keen to avoid that in the coming years...

Taking baby steps and I decided to tackle just the crows feet first. The cranky wrinkle I can hide behind my fringe. On the morning of my first treatment I bounced out of bed, I was so excited.

Before he got down to business, my doctor told me about his "less is more approach." For first-timers he goes for the minimum dosage. Two weeks later you come back for a review. And, rather than completely immobilise the muscle (and that’s a shout out to Kylie and Nicole! Frozen = Bad) he aims to stop most of the movement, which will pretty much ends the wrinkle-making.

What’s the treatment like?
Simple really.

I lie down in the chair.

My doctor gabs away casually whilst preparing the syringe.

I have a mini-oh-my-god-I’m-getting-toxins-injected-into-my-face moment.

I have a don’t-look/can’t-stop-looking moment with the syringe.

I marvel at how blasé the doctor is about the whole thing.

The doctor swabs my face with disinfectant.

He asks me to smile really hard to locate the muscle next to my eye.

He does three injections on each side, which is one dose of Botox in total for both sides of the face.

To be honest, it kinda hurt. Not unbearable but still pain. Nothing too major though.

Immediately after the treatment
I had red spots at the injection sites that night. I also had a bit of a headache and pain around the injection sites. It’s also recommended that you don’t lie down for four hours after treatment, so blood doesn’t pool in your head, dilute the Botox and make it less effective.

The other thing is, the effect isn’t immediate. Straight afterwards and for the next few days your muscle still works as it always did.

The days following the treatment
The red spots turned into three little bruises all in a row. Not too obvious fortunately. Still, the boyfriend noticed and wondered why I had these bruises on both sides of my face… “Errr…I do? Oh weird… How did that happen? Hmmm…” Anyway, those bruises took about a week to go away, which is a while but I bruise easily I think.

Over the next few days I kept checking whether I could move my muscles… Yes, bummer. Around day 4, just when I was beginning to think I was immune to the powers of Botox, things started to relaaaaaaaaaaaax. Now, it feels exactly the same when I smile, but no more crows feet. Joy!

For the first few weeks I still had the fine lines but they’ve been fading and I’m really really happy with the result. I still look like myself, just without the umbrella spoke effect emanating from my eye sockets.

Cost
$195 in total for both sides

Was it worth it?
Yes!


And the cranky wrinkle?
Two weeks after my first appointment I got Botox between my eyebrows. This time the injections still hurt but I didn’t have so much pain afterwards. There were five injections this time, two above each eyebrow and one in between, equaling one dose.

After the treatment
Ten days on and the stubborn furrow between my brows is fading away. I can also feel that the dent that was there has been filled in. Excellent!

The difference with this treatment is I feel like this has effected my facial movement more. I have more of a sense of weight in between my brows and sometimes my forehead muscles feel a bit tense. It’s a price I’m willing to pay to avoid having a perma-frown in years to come.

Cost
Because I’d already had the previous treatment two weeks before, so it was $150

Was it worth it?
Yes again!

Here's a picture of the facial muscles. I'm guessing the doctor injects into the muscle surrounding the eye, for crows feet and the forehead.


Source: yorku.ca