Botox and fillers

[Vainandjustrealised]

I have sadly started to realise something here

I have had botox since I was 24
Fillers lips ans cheeks
Attend for radiofrequency microneedling
Started profhilo

I had a bit of an AHA moment at the hair dressers last week

I was asking her about the treatments they do in the salon - the hair dresser was the same age as me and oozed self love and confidence. She said she had never done anything like that - without knowing I was a (vain) aesthetics addict she said 'you know what the saddest thing about these procedures'. I said 'what?' She said 'every single woman who attends to get them done here is attractive or above average attractiveness already' - 'I never see anyone who actually needs anything done come here'.

The penny dropped
I started to look on social media and realised woman who get these things done are already beautiful and do not need them

AIBU to realise that this industy is a mega money making business pulling on some womans (including my own) subconsious belief that we are 'not good enough' in some ways that results in us getting treatments we do not need?

Its as it I have just woken up. And it cannot fundamentally make me feel better about myself - because then I am onto the next thing. The next treatment and then the next. When does it stop?

I agree op BUT I love my lip fillers...very subtle and has lifted my jowls somehow. My best mate didn't notice much difference when i asked her how it looked but i certainly have! It looked a bit "duck face" for the 1st day due to swelling but not now!
The botox i had in the past was fab too...i know its making ££££ out of my insecurities but i will still get a bit done in the future.

To be honest i think it only stops when we accept our aging face...i can't atm but that is MY issue. We are a vain species.

I guess I only notice the noticeable ones but many look terrible.

There was something odd looking about a neighbour of mine and I didnt realise what it was until another friend said she had botox. So her expressions were always slightly off.

Some people with lip fillers look like they've had an allergic reaction to something. Again, they look ill or odd and it is unpleasant to look at.

Again the unnatural white teeth. Looks like you're in a UV light. There is a really good social media person I follow. I have to cover his mouth when I look at him as his teeth are so disturbingly white.

I wonder if lip fillers will promote wrinkles around the lips?

And I see very attractive people start to get all these things and they all end up looking like some weird kim Kardashian tribute acts/ drag artists.

It’s not just women’s insecurities.

Did anyone see David Beckham on a video link recently? Is it just me or did he look super shiny and a little ‘odd’.

I live next door to an aesthetics practitioner, she is VERY busy with a constant stream of mainly women turning up, I can categorically state that they are not all ‘beautiful’ people at all, not even the majority. Far more people have this stuff done than you would realise. Ugly people like to look younger too!

So maybe you’re not as good looking as your theory suggests op 🤣

I can see how tempting it can be in your forties as you start to notice more signs of aging but I can't understand why people in their 20s get work done. I know people say you only notice the bad work but I live in a very affluent area and I can definitely notice a lot of the school mums have had work and it looks really unnatural and strange, as you say, these are naturally very attractive women. I listen to Fern Cotton's podcast and she was saying influencers in their 20s are shocked she's never had anything done but she looks beautiful in comparison to them in my opinion.

Im not good looking at all - below average
But she didnt know I had it done it was just her observation of the clients she had seen

So many people have botox, fillers etc. It's a bit sad when you're in your 20's and in your prime you feel the need to get something done to make yourself feel "better".

I have a friend at work who has come back from holiday with a puffy face and big lips, she thinks she looks great.

I have family members who started with fillers and various other procedures at 18 years old and they look terrible for it. They were beautiful before and didn't need anything to be done to their faces.

You can tell when someone has had fillers and it often looks awful.

Social media and society influence so many people (mainly women) and make them thing they need to look a certain way. They end up looking like shiny carbon copies of each other.

Here’s the thing, nobody actually “needs” it. It isn’t true that beautiful people don’t need it, but normal or ugly people should sort their faces out!

I don’t disagree with you but I never thought I was unattractive, there were just certain things I knew would make me look better and feel more confident. I don’t like that attitude of “she doesn’t need it” because no many people don’t but if they want to then what’s the problem? I actually feel LESS confident after someone says that to me, idk why, and so many times have had to point out to some very judgmental people that they are saying I don’t need it based on what I look like now after I’ve already had it, how would they know if I need it if they’ve never seen me without?!

The only thing I can’t get behind is veneers (if that’s the correct name) where they shave the teeth down.

I guess I only notice the noticeable ones but many look terrible.
If its done well you won’t notice it most of the time. The problem is so many young people are wanting things done as soon as they turn 18 and just going to the cheapest place instead of looking into it to find someone good.

My personal opinion is that no aesthetics make people more beautiful. They merely make them look like people who have had work done. I think it's really sad the number of people walking around with lip fillers ATM - just why?! It looks sooooo fake and like they are pouting to take a ridiculous selfie 24/7. Why anyone thinks it would make them look prettier is beyond me.

It won't stop, because more and more is being 'invented' as the next best thing to retain youthfulness, or improve how someone looks. It's big money business.

We have a society, who live by what a fake person on IG is being paid to push.

I work with post operative patients. The amount of cosmetic procedures being undertaken at the same time, mainly by females under 28, is staggering. Breast augmentation and lifts, lipo, BBL, tummy tucks. Nearly all have had non surgical work such as botox, fillers, SPMU etc.

It's almost as if the above is the look everyone is aspiring to.

I think the point (for me at least) of these treatments is to preserve my looks, so it would make sense that a lot of women who get fillers and botox are trying to preserve what they have/go back to what they looked like 5 years ago.

I don't think it is ever subtle, not really. You can see many actresses have had things done and they have plenty of money and access to the best practitioners. I think the Duchess of Cambridge has done something and surely she would only go to the very very best, but she looks different (puffier and smoother). I think it depends on whether you think looking smooth is more youthful than having a face that moves naturally - personally I think the latter is better. I don't understand why young women, with their natural glow, would want to make themselves look strange and fake.

Ultimately it makes you look older as:

Young faces move.

The muscles atrophy and you end up with that heavy brow look.

The more you do it, the more fake and plastic you look and you don't look young, you just look like you've had botox and fillers.

You can't botox your neck, décolletage, hands or feet - they give the game away.

A friend of mine's mum is absolutely gorgeous - she has really looked after herself, but has never injected anything into her face - I'd much rather look after my skin, stay out of the sun, limit alcohol and hope for the best.

I'm 38, I've never tried any of these treatments. I've always liked my face exactly as it is (on the whole!) and I feel that fillers and Botox would ruin it. It wouldn't be 'me'.

I think I realised at a young age the enormous pressure that society puts upon us. I remember throwing out all my fashion and beauty magazines and pledging never to buy one again. I still love dressing up, but I feel I have my own unique style and 'look' that feels just right to me. My natural face feels like part of that. That said, I wouldn't rule out some treatments in the future if I feel like it, but I'm curious about how my face and body will change in my 40s and 50s and whether I continue to become more 'myself', or whether my looks depart from who I feel that I am. Interesting.

This is me at 50. No Botox, fillers, profilho. Only Retin A and Neutrogena. Zero makeup. I don't think I look terrible except for some sagging which I have come to terms with. ( ignore the ratty hair; back from the gym)

My personal opinion is that once you start, you can never stop. So I won't start.

If you don’t like the way these things look or don’t want them for whatever reason then don’t get anything done, easy. Doesn’t mean no one else should have the things they want done or have someone bashing their looks.

op I know it probably wasn’t your intention but this is just yet another thread that’s going to end up with loads of people bashing, looking down on, and judging women for doing things that make they happy. If a woman goes and gets filler because it makes them feel more confident in how they look why do we need to them bash them and tear away their confidence by making sweeping statements about how bad all this stuff makes people look?

i don’t have any fillers or Botox but I know people who do and many of them you’d never know if they hadn’t said.

I’m amazed at how many people on this thread have work done! Agree with a PP the best looking person 50+ I know is someone who has had 0 work done and just taken care of themselves! Botox and fillers is always obvious and never looks good

I don't think the women who get botox and fillers are necessarily already beautiful but they often look absolutely fine already in my eyes or better before the procedures. For example, the jawline and chin definition doesn't suit all faces so it often looks a bit off to the eye.

And there are women who look stunning but it's because the had stuff done already like a nose job, brow lift or lower face lift for example and botox and fillers are just top ups to them.

I don't think though that in real life, in natural light and without make up, hair scraped back you can look young and fresh faced unless you really are young in age. there is a certain plumpness and quality to the skin and its thickness that just isn't there as you get older and I haven't seen it successfully replicated even with cosmetic procedures and injections.

As a mother of a YA DD, I am very concerned about 22 year olds shooting their faces full of toxins.

It can't be simply dismissed as a confidence building strategy. Something wrong with a world where every 21 yr old wants to look like Kim Kardashian.

Week at least your op disproves the usual line trotted out on here of “ you can ALWAYS tell” no you can’t

I get Botox and a small amount of lip filler I think I do look better with it and feel more confident so won’t be stopping

but yes some people do get far to much done and it looks obvious and they look worse for it

There is a strange taboo around speaking the truth about it though - because it is seen as tearing other women down. But I think that we should be truthful about how it looks, because the industry is exploiting women and their insecurities. I don't doubt that it looks subtle enough on some people when they first have it done, but that changes quickly as you have further treatments. I live in an affluent area and I can see it instantly in the majority of cases. The emphasis should be on helping women to feel confident in their own skin, not to feel confident in a cosmetically tweaked version of themselves that can only be achieved at great expense and ultimately doesn't make them look any better.

I know it is taboo on MN to say so , but I don't think Kate Middleton looks good at all. And as unbelievable as it may seem, I don't want to look like that.

The entire beauty industry is based on persuading women they have flaws which need to be fixed.

Anything that tells us ‘how to hide our flaws’ is telling us we have flaws.

The beauty industry would not exist if women were confident about how they look, or sell promises of helping us teach some societal ideal.