3 Reasons Why I Quit Botox® and Other Injectables
I’m not afraid to fess up to a little vanity. I don’t think I’m any vainer than the next person. Like many people, I just want to look my best when I go out in public. Or on Zoom.
Recently, one evening I noticed the furrows between my eyebrows. They were deep. Could probably hold a penny in those hollows. The medical term is glabellar lines. Most people call them the elevens. My mom had strong elevens. They were so pronounced that sometimes I’d ask her what she was upset about.
“Nothing,” she said. It was just the elevens doing the talking.
Back to the other evening. I thought it was time to make an appointment with the “Med Spa.” After all, there is this thing called ageism, and it’s alive and well. “Med Spas” help us in the fight against ageism. But as I studied my face and all its imperfections, I thought,
“No! I want to look like me.”
I’m not in quest of a Barbie doll face that resembles thousands of other faces. I kind of like my face, even if it does have wrinkles, spots, and some deep elevens. I earned them! Why should I succumb to societal (a/k/a social media) pressure to have a perfectly smooth (a/k/a young) face?
The primary reason I want to quit Botox®: I just want to be me.
Even celebrities are quitting the needle. Cameron Diaz told Entertainment Tonight, “it changed my face in such a weird way…I’d rather see my face aging than a face that doesn’t belong to me at all.”
The second reason I’m quitting Botox® and other injectables is the cost.
If you want to keep up the treatment, it’s approximately $500 for each visit. Multiply that by 3–4 times a year, which adds up to $1,500 — $2,000. Those dollars could buy me and my elevens a plane ticket to somewhere awfully nice and fun. I can still have fun wearing my elevens, can’t I?
The third reason it’s over for me and injectables is their long-term effects.
I don’t know exactly what they are. Does anyone? What I do know is that Botox® weakens muscles, and some injectables can make your skin visibly thinner over time. My skin is already getting thin. It’s called aging. Some doctors have proposed that Botox® may not work after many years of use.
I think I’ll stick with my toiletries bag full of lotions and potions to slather all over my face.
If you want to continue your wrinkle-reducing injections, go ahead. I’m not here to judge. You do you.
But for me, my elevens and other wrinkles are witnesses to a life full of adventure, with some real heavy grief thrown in. A life of fun, passion, and too much sun.
It’s time for me to be me.
