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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

What age did you start Botox?

430 replies

NameChangeChic · 12/02/2025 19:20

And what was your results like? Did it last long? I’m getting it done soon for the first time and I can’t wait lol

OP posts:
Summerhillsquare · 12/02/2025 20:19

Pamspeople · 12/02/2025 20:06

I've never really understood what's so bad about looking your age. Why is old bad? Genuine question

I'll have to work another 20 years to support myself, and I'm already losing out on career opportunities to younger people. Mostly men, as it's a technical field. Perhaps it won't really help against ageism (and sexism?) but I feel it's worth a go.

Pamspeople · 12/02/2025 20:20

Summerhillsquare · 12/02/2025 20:19

I'll have to work another 20 years to support myself, and I'm already losing out on career opportunities to younger people. Mostly men, as it's a technical field. Perhaps it won't really help against ageism (and sexism?) but I feel it's worth a go.

Wow, that's depressing. Sorry to hear that.

abracadabra1980 · 12/02/2025 20:20

37-at that age when lines when my lines were first starting to show, it was good. I kept it up until I had it done by a 'therapist' who put too much in, and my medium size forehead, started to look twice the size. By my 40's, lips had become a 'thing' and I was in there at the beginning (of the consultant surgeons wife who unbeknown to be had just started 'dabbling'). It resulted in my thin lips being pumped up to the point of ridiculousness, and dropping the bottom line of the top lip on the right and left of my mouth, (note: nobody seems to escape this problem; its the first thing I look at. Teeth that used to be exposed to a little of life/vitamin D/flashing an odd pearly white, hiding behind the new voluminous pressure of the filler.
Roll on to your late 40's/early 50's, and nothing looks authencially youthful as by now you are a walking advertisitmet for cosmetic procedures, with your plastic large forehead and your missing incisors, possibly enhanced with a look of puffy weight gain, from badly injected fillers.
Personally, I can enthuse about this topic,
a) because I'm old and have tried a few of them/watched how the generations play with them. Nobody bothered with their neck or hands - looks most odd to be smooth in parts at 50, but with a neck like a turkey
b) I was lucky enough to have some bad jobs in my experimental years and have learned from it (looking at you, botox consultant who injected too much botox which yes, smoothed out my forehead wrinkles, but also pinched my once pleasant looking eyes, into piss holes in the snow - another 'look' that's common
c) I get why people want to try it, I really do, we all want to look our best
In summary, you can maybe stave off aging in your 30's & 40's, until menopause. Then the shit hits the fan, unless you have a facelift, neck lift and hand lift, you are kidding nobody, and potentially looking really odd. Also, there is something extremely liberating in not giving a shit about wrinkles and ageing any more. I wish I could bottle it.

DollydaydreamTheThird · 12/02/2025 20:20

pippapipps · 12/02/2025 19:51

This

Agree. I think women go through enough pain in our lifetimes. I will not inflict pain on myself unless it is for a medical reason that is justified and medically necessary. That said I don't have a problem with other people doing it if it makes them happy and boosts their self esteem. We're not here for a long time are we? You do you boo😃

Pamspeople · 12/02/2025 20:21

crankytoes · 12/02/2025 20:18

Do you feel the same way about colouring your hair or wearing makeup?

Yep

Thepossibility · 12/02/2025 20:22

Maybe 30? But I have my dad's expressive forehead that was clearly lined from when I was a child. So really I just wanted to look the same as other people my age, not a haggard old lady. If I had a normal amount of wrinkles for my age I wouldn't bother.

crankytoes · 12/02/2025 20:22

@Newbie8918

I can list a whole host of beauty standards that both males and females are subject to but nothing seems to evoke as much judgment as Botox on MN 🤷‍♀️
Fillers. Fillers get even more vitriol on MN than Botox.

Especially lips. People claiming they can always tell. Even though that is literally impossible to claim. This fact escapes people. They genuinely don't understand that there is no way one can honestly always know. There is such a variation of features and without knowing what everyone looks like one could not possibly know if someone had fillers. That dumbness always makes me laugh

crankytoes · 12/02/2025 20:23

Pamspeople · 12/02/2025 20:06

I've never really understood what's so bad about looking your age. Why is old bad? Genuine question

What is 'looking your age' though.

One would have to go without makeup and not colour one's hair if they want to really look their age

WeylandYutani · 12/02/2025 20:24

Pamspeople · 12/02/2025 20:06

I've never really understood what's so bad about looking your age. Why is old bad? Genuine question

Same.
If you are 43 (for example), then what is wrong with your face also looking 43?
Getting all these jabs and treatments puts out the message to people that looking 43 is bad, and your face needs to look 30 something, or younger.

I know a lady who is the same age as me. She spends all her salary on botox etc. I said I feel shit compared to her.. and people say I should not compare myself as she spends money to be the way she is, and I don't. But it makes me think that the treatments she gets and how she looks is the norm, and I am a freak for not doing it. Like armpit hair. It has become a societal expectation to shave... and now erasing the 11 on your forehead is expected otherwise we are seen as lazy.

Motherhubbardscupboard · 12/02/2025 20:24

It makes me sad that it's those of us who don't use Botox (late forties) who are going to be judged for aging naturally.

RosesAndHellebores · 12/02/2025 20:25
  1. Never have, never will.
Changeandchanges · 12/02/2025 20:25

Pamspeople · 12/02/2025 20:06

I've never really understood what's so bad about looking your age. Why is old bad? Genuine question

There is nothing wrong with aging. It is, or should be, a natural process.
There is something wrong with a society that sells youth and youthful looks as the only thing worthwhile.
Personally I can't stand the botox, total unnatural doll like, look all the same, faces we see daily in the media. Give me a face with character and lines and evidence of emotions, any day.

Zusammengebrochen · 12/02/2025 20:26

crankytoes · 12/02/2025 20:23

What is 'looking your age' though.

One would have to go without makeup and not colour one's hair if they want to really look their age

Wearing make up and colouring hair doesn't prevent someone looking their age. Hair dye can be ageing. So can make up.

Exitstrategist · 12/02/2025 20:27

Why don’t we all “live and let live”? I have Botox not for anyone else but because I actually have shit genes and look older than I am. So if I can feel more confident and actually like my age then brilliant.

Beautifulweeds · 12/02/2025 20:27

Changeandchanges · 12/02/2025 19:39

Oh my goodness this a sad thread.

Is botox really the norm for so many women?
And so many young women at that?

Agree! It's not until your 40s you start getting lines really. Sadly I know women in their 20s getting botox, lipfillers etc. Nothing beats natural young skin so doing all this stuff just makes a face look false.

InWithThePlums · 12/02/2025 20:27

Makeup and hair dye aren’t as invasive or expensive (usually) as Botox, so I don’t think it’s a fair comparison really. Those things are also very normal- Botox isn’t yet, and I don’t think we need to make it that way.

arcticpandas · 12/02/2025 20:28

45 and not planning to ever use it.

MyPearlCrow · 12/02/2025 20:31

I’m amazed how many peopld are normalising this! Hair is dead and colour doesn’t change its physiology. Botox is a poison people are deliberately injecting into perfectly normal face muscles to paralyse them and stop them from working normally because society and media tells us normal ageing is wrong. What does this tell our young women about what’s important in life? What does it tell our young men about how women should look?

there is an epidemic of female filled/flattened faces in a way that hair transplants etc just haven’t caught on for men. Still many attractive bald men, just look at half the premiership managers, bald as a coot but not filling it in with fake hair to try and look forever 30.

i have two teenage daughters who have naturally plump, youthful, gorgeous faces and bodies. I don’t want or need to compete with them for youthful looks or some commercialised ideal of beauty. It’s their turn now, not mine.

isitmeamithedrama · 12/02/2025 20:31

I was 35 I'm 42 now and would
Definitely say it's worth it. I get it done 6-7month infact I'm going tomorrow
I wouldn't be without it.
I look less angry and tired I go get quite a lot of units as I like no movement but I don't have the shiny puffy look that's usually associated with Botox

Pamspeople · 12/02/2025 20:31

Exitstrategist · 12/02/2025 20:27

Why don’t we all “live and let live”? I have Botox not for anyone else but because I actually have shit genes and look older than I am. So if I can feel more confident and actually like my age then brilliant.

I think people are living and let living, really. Just sharing different views. I'm not hearing much judgement of others, I think we all appreciate how much pressure there is to look a certain way. People make different choices, probably all slightly mystified by the ones we don't make that's all!

Icanttakethisanymore · 12/02/2025 20:32

Pamspeople · 12/02/2025 20:04

I often think about how much freedom and power women could have if they invested all the money they spend on treatments, fashion. Not judging anyone for feeling pressure to look a certain way, and the normalisation of all this stuff is so powerful. But wow, the amount of independence, travel, freedom women could have instead

They could have more power, independence and freedom if we closed the gender pay gap too…. I’ve not had botox (I’m 40) and I can confidently tell you I’ll never have it, however, ‘don’t hate the player, hate the game’ springs to mind. Why are these women injecting poison into their faces to look younger? Because the patriarchy has convinced us all it matters and we buy into it. Me included by the way; I dye my hair, I wear make up (albeit not often).

SoulMole · 12/02/2025 20:32
  1. Just for the 11s, which I'd had forever! I was a frowner. 45 now. Perfect result. 4 monthly. Been today!
Pamspeople · 12/02/2025 20:34

I was very shocked when my 35 year old male colleague told me he and his wife both routinely have botox. I honestly didn't know how to respond. Ironically I could feel myself trying to arrange my face into a suitable expression 😅

nutbrownhare15 · 12/02/2025 20:34

43 here and I don't intend to ever start

Pamspeople · 12/02/2025 20:35

Icanttakethisanymore · 12/02/2025 20:32

They could have more power, independence and freedom if we closed the gender pay gap too…. I’ve not had botox (I’m 40) and I can confidently tell you I’ll never have it, however, ‘don’t hate the player, hate the game’ springs to mind. Why are these women injecting poison into their faces to look younger? Because the patriarchy has convinced us all it matters and we buy into it. Me included by the way; I dye my hair, I wear make up (albeit not often).

Absolutely, I completely agree. Patriarchy wins double if women judge each other for their chouces.

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