Do you remember the first time you heard about Botox? I do. I was a teenager. I’d hear about it while watching my favorite movies or TV shows or reading magazines depicting how awful it was, how it would freeze your entire face and make you look even worse.
Ring any bells? I thought, “Who would ever do this to themselves? Why would you want to alter your appearance like this or freeze your face?” I swore right then and there I would never do anything like that.
I mean good grief Hollywood, get it together.
But then, I was 28 and the line between my eyebrows had made itself a home. I hadn’t told anyone how self-conscious I was about it, I just…lived with it. At the time I was working as a receptionist at a medical spa in Georgetown, TX and our nurse was taking Botox appointments.
My 40 year old coworker next to me stood up and said “It’s my turn!” I paused and said to myself, “wait…what?”
When she returned she had a few tiny pin marks on her forehead. I asked, “You get Botox!?!” “Of course,” she said, “I have for years.” I went on to ask her what it was like and how it worked and eventually got up the courage to point out the line between my brows and told her how self-conscious I was about it. She was confident that Botox was the answer and begged me to try it.
Remembering everything I had heard about it, I still wasn’t sure I was ready to take the leap.
A week later I thought, what the heck, I’ll try it. Obviously vigorously massaging my frown lines at night after a hot shower wasn’t doing me any favors, so this might be the golden ticket. Luckily my best friend was visiting so I convinced her to come along. I was a bundle of nerves. My palms were sweating. I had no idea what to expect.
When I finally made it to the treatment room, after discussing my “problem areas” the nurse was very kind and gentle as she began my treatment. Suddenly, there was a pinch! To distract myself from the needle going into my forehead I began asking her random questions like, “aren’t puppies like so cute?”
After about 5-7 pricks, it was over. I was a little sore and other than a small headache I felt fine.
When I got home I immediately looked in the mirror to see if it was frozen yet. Nope. (It can take up to 2 weeks to kick in) I continued to check each day until about day nine when I noticed my lines no longer appeared when I frowned. Score.
Here are my real results about 9 days after my 1st treatment of 30 units. I know you can’t really tell, but I was making the exact same expression in both pictures, honest. Look at the frown on the far left; I could have held a pencil in my glabella! And check out the picture on the right, I mean c’mon! Those wrinkles are gone, baby! You might have noticed my eyebrows, how they’re a little uneven, but the nurse fixed me up, I just didn’t take a picture. Another bonus, higher arches!
Not a day goes by that I don’t thank my co-worker for giving me the push I needed to try this treatment. It has given me back my confidence and stopped my aging dead in its tracks. To this day I get 30 units about every 3-4 months to keep my deep wrinkles at bay. It starts with prevention, folks. For all of you that have never tried Botox or sworn it off because of what you’ve heard, I urge you to give it chance if you have any insecurities about expression lines like I did. It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
