Getting Botox - My Experience and An Unexepcted Benefit

Getting Botox – My Experience and an Unexpected Benefit

Botox. What’s the first thing you think of when you hear the word? Images of frozen foreheads, scarily raised eyebrows? Getting Botox seems to have a lot of negative associations. When I told my friends their reactions ranged from “No don’t do that, it’s not a good look” to “go do it and tell me all the gory details after.” Well, I’m going to share the gory details with you all! (Don’t worry it’s not actually gory)

I’ve been wanting to get Botox for a good while now. My skin is in pretty good condition (well it should be for the amount of time and money I spend on it!) I have some lines across my forehead. I’ve always had them, even as a teenager but they had become deeper and more noticeable over the past few years. I’m also always fascinated with trying out different treatments and apart from getting a broken capillary removed I haven’t had any other medical cosmetic treatments. And as Botox is the most popular cosmetic treatment I thought it would be the best one to start with.

After being recommended to Dr Samir from the Doctor 1.618 clinic and seeing first hand from friends how good their skin looked – no frozen foreheads! I made an appointment with him. I was a bit nervous about getting it done, luckily I don’t have a problem with needles but I had spent the day before researching all the different ways it could go wrong and was starting to catastrophize what could happen. But Dr Samir straight away put me at ease within the first few minutes. I could tell from the time he took to look at my skin and my facial movements while asking me what results I was hoping for, that he knew what he was doing.

I explained what was bothering me the most, which was that my left eyebrow would rise higher than my right, and was making the lines on my forehead deeper. We decided to go for 3 areas, my eyes, in between my eyes and my forehead and to bring up my right eyebrow so its more symmetrical with the left.

The actual procedure only took a few minutes as you can see from the video below. Don’t watch if you don’t like needles! It wasn’t painful, a bit of a slight prick occasionally. By the way, he’s asking me to make those funny faces. There was a little bit of bleeding at the injection sites but it stopped after a second

There isn’t a huge difference, which is good as I wanted it to look natural, but my forehead lines are significantly softer.

The biggest change was the most unexpected one. During my consultation for getting Botox, I asked him about getting fillers for underneath my eyes as I’d seen this can help reduce the puffy/fatty under eye bags, something I have a BIG problem with! And I had already spoken to another dermatologist who agreed that filler would help. Dr Samir actually said to wait and see how much botox would lift the eye and also recommend using Preparation H (yeh know the stuff for piles…)

The photo below is taken 2 weeks apart and I’m smiling in both.

I am beyond happy with the change. The bags under my eyes have been really getting me down over the past few years. So much so that I changed how I smiled, I used to always smile with my teeth showing but this started making the eye bags look really big, and which then made me look really tired. So I began smiling a different way without showing my teeth, which stopped the skin from crinkling up. I even sometimes photoshopped some of the pictures (come on we’ve all done it)to get rid of the bags. I’ve always had dark circles, one of the reasons I discovered makeup was putting concealer under my eyes when I was about 10! And I’ve been using eye cream nearly as long to try and get rid of the puffiness and dark circles.

I’ve tried everything! So many expensive creams, different diets, drinking loads of water, and believe me I get enough sleep! But unfortunately I am genetically disposed to getting them, my father has them and so did my grandmother. My eye bags have gotten much worse over the years and I have been looking into many different treatments (hence the enquiry about fillers) to help them. But I didn’t think getting botox would make such a difference. It’s lifted up my eyes (without having scary Botox brows!) so the skin isn’t as scrunched up when I smile and I think the Preparation H has helped to reduce the “puffiness” of the tissue.

In general, using preparation H isn’t recommended by a lot of skincare professionals as it can be damaging if you get it in the eye itself. I had always been of the belief that it an old wives tale so I was surprised when Dr Samir recommended it, but it does make sense using it for me as its meant to bring down inflamed tissue. He did give me very strict instructions for using it. A pea-sized amount for both eyes and only use it for 6 weeks. I will continue to use it and report back on how I’m getting on.

I’m all about self-love and self-confidence and part of me wishes I could accept these first signs of ageing because its whats on the inside that counts. But well, I’m as vain as the next person and I want my outside to match my inside. I think the first signs of ageing are the hardest ones to accept. Nowadays many of us are ignoring adulthood for as long as possible (hello me!) so when you see that first line or wrinkle, the reality of getting older slaps you the face. I’m not ready to age as fast as my face wants but I know in time I will come to accept it. In saying that It’s not really about looking younger for me but looking the best I can. Those first few lines and my eyes were making me look tired. I now feel like I look much more refreshed and healthier and that is making me feel better inside as well. I’m very happy with the results and will definitely be getting it done again.

I want to be very transparent about getting it done because I do talk about and recommend products I use and it would be really bad of me to pretend my skin looks like this just from skincare products. But you have Botox done I believe it’s completely fine to not tell anyone about. What you do and what treatments you have is your business no one else’s.

While I was getting my botox done I quizzed Dr Samir about some of the facts about Botox, which you can read about here.

What are your thoughts on getting botox? Have you had it done? Would you get it done?

Tara @sewmanypins says:

September 28, 2018 at 4:23 am

Getting Botox has always scared me. I don’t want to look fake, but yours looks so incredibly natural! Thanks for sharing your experience!

Reply
1. awelltravelledbeauty says:
  
  September 29, 2018 at 12:18 am
  
  Thank you I’m so happy with it! I was so worried about getting a freakishly smooth forehead and crazy eyebrows but as long as you don’t go over board it really does look natural!
  
  Reply
Anne| onedeterminedlife says:

September 28, 2018 at 4:43 am

I have never considered Botox, but the results look great

Reply
1. awelltravelledbeauty says:
  
  September 29, 2018 at 12:19 am
  
  Thank you!
  
  Reply
TheHappyFoodKitchen says:

September 28, 2018 at 6:21 am

I think the way Botox is administered has improved greatly in the past few years for a more natural result. While I don’t know I could justify the cost to myself at the moment I am open to the idea later in life!

Reply
1. awelltravelledbeauty says:
  
  September 29, 2018 at 12:27 am
  
  Oh definitely! Botox has only been around for about 15 years so there is improvements happening with treatments all the time.
  
  Reply