I’ve been getting Botox in my forehead on and off for about five years now. Technically, it’s Dysport, but Botox seems to be the shorthand for these treatments, so we’ll go with that.
It took me a while to find the right person. I had a couple of fairly horrific experiences early on. Eyebrows that seemed to be crawling in opposite directions. One sitting noticeably higher than the other. Attempts to fix things that somehow made them worse.
And each time, I noticed something interesting: I would look at myself in the mirror about twenty times more a day than usual.
Did I look weird? Frozen? Why was one eyelid covering my eye? And what were those two tiny wrinkles at the very top of my forehead, where there hadn’t been wrinkles before?
I’d find myself studying my face, looking for evidence that the treatment had worked, or hadn’t worked, or had somehow made things worse.
And inevitably, everytime…I’d think, What the hell am I spending this money for?
I was spending so much money to feel better about how I looked, only to spend even more time thinking about how I looked.
And after all that scrutinizing - and not loving the results - once things finally settled, the effect seemed to last about a month, at best.
Apparently, I have a very fast forehead metabolism.
If that’s a thing.
Eventually, I found a physician associated with a large medical system here in St. Louis. She was good. For the first time, the results looked natural. My forehead was a little softer, my eyebrows were where they belonged, and I didn’t spend the next several weeks wondering what had gone wrong.
I trusted her.
But over time, I noticed something else happening. Little suggestions would appear during our appointments.
Have you considered this mask? Or SkinPen? Or CoolSculpting?
There was always something new that could “help.”
And even though I liked her and trusted her more than the other people I’d seen, I could still sense the upsell. The suggestion that there was something else about my appearance worth improving.
And, well, it worked.
Which brings me to last week.
