Hair & Beauty

Behind The Botox Curtain

Here is everything you have wanted to know about wrinkle fillers but was afraid to ask.

Over the last 6 months of so, I have witnessed a spate of my friends become addicted to filters. They filter every bloody photo they post, to the point where it’s a guessing game to determine where their noses finish and their cheeks begin.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of filters too, but I genuinely like to think the filters I use are so subtle that people can’t tell I’m using them. I’m probably like that woman with teeth that are so white they vividly glow in the dark, but she’s living in an alternate reality where she thinks people are like “wow she must have had a good dental routine growing up”.

chinese-shar-pei

Chinese Shar-Pei Dogs

Whether I’m in denial or not, it’s been my reality for quite a few years now, particularly as I was blessed with deep forehead lines since my early 20s. Filters just make me feel less like a Chinese Shar-Pei.

Other than giving away my age in photos, my forehead grooves have also been the source of many bad make up situations. For those of you not in the know, if you wear heavy make up for events, photography or being in front of a camera, or you’re just a lover of COVERAGE, wrinkles tend to collect your make up, and you end up looking like a stripy, shonky mess.

As a result of the above situations, I’ve been quietly mulling over whether or not to undergo wrinkle fillers (otherwise known as Botox). I’m getting frighteningly close to 40, and I’m about to get married, so if there was ever a time for it…

I can’t say I did much research before going and talking to the experts, however every time various media personalities “sacrificed” themselves to try out Wrinkle Fillers for the sake of journalism, I paid close attention. We all know it’s not journalism, but a thinly veiled opportunity for them to undergo a free treatment whilst pretending there is no vanity involved. Well for me, it’s all about the vanity. I wanted good wedding photos. And to stop using filters. And to be able to cake as much make up on my forehead as I wanted to. And looking ten years younger couldn’t hurt either.

Initially I popped in to a local clinic to get an idea of price. I soon discovered that not all consultants were made equal, and there are plenty out there who will try and up sell you with stuff you really don’t need. My original consultant told me in addition to fillers in my forehead, I should get injections in my cheeks to lift them (as apparently they are sagging now with age), and also get my lips done. My lips?! I’m particularly happy with the fullness of my lips, and was quietly gobsmacked she even suggested it. I’d look like one of those Jenner girls gone wrong.

Luckily for me, I had a friend on the inside. I’ve known Dani Morris from Laser Clinic Australia forever, and I managed to get a genuine consultation after popping into their clinic in the Myer Centre, Rundle Mall. She agreed with me that some minimal fillers in my forehead would smooth out the lines I had, but that we had to be careful not to go overboard, as i use my eyes quite expressively, and we didn’t want to freeze that over.

So I went ahead. And yes, it was complimentary, even though I willing to pay to undergo a treatment. Score. So, for the sake of ‘journalism’ I thought I’d bring you my findings on the matter, rather than just pose for a smiling photo with a needle pointing at my head.

Here’s what I discovered.

  1. You can wear make up to your appointment. I thought I may need to come in fresh faced (which didn’t really work with the meetings I had earlier in the day), so I was relieve to find out I didn’t have to abolish the only thing allowing me to look like I wasn’t kept awake all night by my kids.
  2. It hurts. My eyes watered and my knuckles were white. But I’ve given birth to two babies without pain killers, so I held on to that thought and pretended to be brave. I just grimaced and imagined my lovely smooth forehead on the other end of this procedure.
  3. Some of the needle pricks make you bleed. I didn’t expect this. No biggie as Dani just blotted it away with some cotton, but it was surprising so I thought you may also want to know.
  4. Every place you have an injection turns into little swollen lumps, like mosquito bites. So my forehead looked like I’d had an allergy to something. Here’s where I started to worry about returning to work.
  5. You can’t apply your own make up over the top of the treated area until the next day, and you can’t use a cleanser, or touch your skin, or rub it. Just stay away basically. This made worry even more about looking low-key after leaving the clinic.
  6. They can apply special powder to cover the redness and reduce the evidence of swelling. Dani was my saviour and produced a mineral powder which was able to hide most of the evidence from my treatment. Except the swelling.
  7. The little lumps on my forehead started shrinking straight away, and by the time I got to the car, they were virtually gone. I had one or two that remained until the next day, which basically just looked like I had a couple of pimples. No drama.
  8. You can’t lay down for a few hours after the treatment, and when you go to bed you can’t lay on your back. This was tougher that I thought, and I spent most of my night very conscious of how I was positioned.
  9. It can take up to 2 weeks for the filler to bond with your muscle, and for the results to appear. Mine started kicking in by day 2, with full results pretty much there within 4 or 5 days. But I had a problem.
  10. There’s a thing called Spocking.
    Spocking

    Spocking

    It’s when your eyebrows reinvent themselves to look like Captain Spock. Or Jack Nicholson. I’ve since discovered many girls just leave this thinking it’s just how things need to be. It’s not. It’s fixable, and god should you fix it. I was freakishly frightening until Dani gave me a couple more injections and voila. Perfection.

So I had a new forehead now.

And I love it.

Yes, I had to come to terms with the fact that my face just doesn’t move as much as it did before, and that is absolutely an adjustment, but it’s the only downfall. I’m now three months on, and while I have far more movement in my forehead, the deep lines haven’t returned, with only fine wrinkles appearing when I lift my eyebrows – and it’s fabulous.

I’m filter free, and ready for my wedding photos. Game on.

Before

Before

After

After

 

 

 

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