Below is an extract taken from Chapter 18: The incredible injectables, To Age or Not to Age: Strategies and Life Hacks to Turn Back the Clock by Lyndal Linkin (2022).
“There is no question, botox and fillers have absolutely taken the world by storm. Botox and fillers are both great treatments for anti-aging, reducing the appearance of wrinkles and plumping the skin. However, they do different things – while botox keeps wrinkles and fine lines from forming by relaxing the muscles surrounding targeted areas, fillers fill wrinkles and plump desired areas of the face, such as the cheeks and lips.
Outside of having plastic surgery, botox is pretty much the most effective way to reduce the appearance of crow’s feet, frown lines and forehead lines. Another key use of botox, which has become increasingly popular in recent years, is the ability to reshape your face. Forget what you used to think about botox. Once considered to be used only by celebrities and the wealthy with a bad rap for freezing faces, these injections have become a commonplace activity.
Botox and fillers used to be only for Boomers, but not any more, as increasingly younger people are embracing the injections. Millennials and Gen Xers are heading to plastic surgeons or dermatologists to prevent their skin from aging.
Forbes magazine recently reported the use of botox among people aged 19–34 has risen by 87% over the past five years. Prevention is not the only reason driving the younger people of
our population to use injectables. They have a different attitude towards these procedures. The younger generation ask why we are so prejudiced against anti-aging procedures such as botox and fillers when society seems to think it is perfectly okay to spend hundreds of dollars having your hair dyed, cut and blow-dried?
Another driving force behind these procedures in the young is the pressure to look great on social media. A quick search of #botox turns up almost 10.3 million Instagram posts and there are 2.8 million posts for #fillers. With the takeover of the selfie, younger women are getting fillers because they want Kylie Jenner lips, the perfect pout or they want their face to look more like photos created by Snapchat filters. There has been a huge increase in non-surgical procedures for the 19–34 year-olds which coincides with the growing selfie obsession and use of social media filters.
So is this for you? Knowing the differences between botox and filler and their purposes as well as being aware of what you would like to achieve is essential in picking the right treatment for you.”
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