How I lost my Botox virginity AT74
Experts say 30 is the best time to start Botox. So what happened when Angela Neustatter tried to turn back the clock?
Last month I had my first ever Botox injection. Wincing with anticipation, I tried not to stare into the mirror as the liquid flowed from syringe to skin and I had crossed that irreversible line from ‘natural’ to ‘done’. Plenty of people have Botox. But not me. I am 74, happily married, a mother of two very grown-up boys and a grandmother of three. I’m also someone who had prided herself on resisting the siren call of the needle, while friends smoothed brows and tightened crow’s feet. so why this sudden change of heart? the answer is simple. While my body is in pretty good shape, thanks to Pilates and yoga, I’d become increasingly aware that the face in the mirror resembled an Ordnance survey map of lines.
the wrinkles on my forehead seemed to have dug in and be pointing down like arrows. Under my eyes, fine lines were heading south at an alarming rate. Others went from nose to mouth, and down from
the mouth as though dissecting my chin. It wasn’t so much that I looked old, but that I looked weary and dreary and bad-tempered. I did not want that to be me. I shared the lament of Gypsy Rose Lee: ‘I have everything I had 20 years ago, except now it’s all lower’.
Yet I was also aware, alas, that I was a particularly old Botox first-timer. After all, women are often told to start the treatment in their 30s, in order to stop wrinkles from forming. In our 40s and 50s Botox is said to stop lines from becoming imprinted, and in one’s 60s a few ccs of botulinum toxin can take the edge off an already deeply etched crevasse.
But what about the Botox virgin in her 70s? Very little is said about her. Is it simply too old to make a difference? Is there an age and stage when it is either unwise or totally pointless to go for a tweakment?
I ask Dr tracy Mountford of the Cosmetic Skin Clinic, who I’m very pleased to hear has clients in their 90s. ‘If someone aims to look 30 years younger, I tell them I can’t do it,’ she says. ‘there are no medical reasons why older women shouldn’t have treatments, but the effects are more subtle.
‘If skin has thinned a lot, I take that into account and do fillers slowly to achieve smooth results. the women I treat all say they are empowered by feeling they are the best versions of themselves.’
In fact, I am joining an increasing number of baby boomers opting for a pepped-up face, with fillers to plump and improve skin, as well as Botox to freeze lines. (the difference between the two types of injectables is that Botox stops a muscle from moving, so is used to tackle issues caused by repeated muscle movement or tension, while fillers replace lost volume and stimulate collagen production.)
We are, according to research from the Pensions Advisory Service, even dipping into pension funds to pay for procedures. And while younger women opt for body treatments, over-55s tend to focus on the face.
that said, it does take me several weeks to pluck up the courage to ring Dr Sarah tonks. A friend, who looks particularly good for her age, recommended her to me, and Dr tonks’s ten years of medical training and specialisation in cosmetic treatment inspire confidence. I also like her chatty down-to-earth manner.
She seems unfazed by my age — indeed 30 per cent of her clients are over 50, including an 80-year-old woman who looked ‘fabulous’ after having fillers and is now a regular.
However, she’s also quick to tell me that I’m well past the optimum time to begin Botox. She advises starting in your mid-30s in order to stop frown lines from becoming deep and embedded, as mine have. She uses Botox in fine facial lines, crows feet and the forehead, yet insists I mustn’t hope for a brow smooth enough to skate on, just a little softening.
WHAT about risks? Being older, provided you are healthy and can heal well, is not a problem, Dr tonks says. But although it is rare, anyone can get bruising, swelling, infection, hypersensitivity and ‘in very rare cases, occlusion of a blood vessel’ (when filler, injected in a small facial artery, causes a blockage, so the filler has to be dissolved).
‘Botox can help with the forehead and fine lines, but fillers are often the most important part of what I use, as they re-inflate tissue where volume has been lost,’ Dr tonks adds. ‘this usually starts around the eyes, the front cheek, temple and so on.’
She tells me this while drawing lines around the parts of my face where volume loss has led