Botox & frozen faces

[Expressionless]

If you have Botox to the parts of your face that mean you’ve rendered yourself unable to move large part of your face or have very little movement in your eyebrows / around your eyes, does it not bother you that you essentially look frozen and expressionless?

At the end of the day, most of us, would like to reduce fine lines and wrinkles - we live in a world that holds women to ridiculous youth standards - basically we all feel we shouldn’t age and that an ageing face is the worst possible outcome. But at what cost does this come?

Watching almost all TV / films now means any woman over about 25, maybe 30 at a push essentially has a frozen face and quite literally can’t show emotions properly. Most men don’t do it, so it’s definitely a sexist standard.

Women saying they ‘do it for themselves’ - well okay, but only because you’ve been conditioned to find ageing abhorrent.

Why can’t we just be left the fuck alone, to age and have faces that move and show our expressions and feelings. Like we have for 1,000’s of years.

You can either look old or you can look weird. You’ve already looked young because you were young. You can look old because you are old - and it’s completely normal to look older as you get older, or you can look weird. You can erase some lines, plump some cheeks, and lipo some chunks, but really, you just look a bit weird. It looks fine on the television but in real life I’m seeing tired skin with porn star lips, permanently startled expressions, tired eyes, and weird eyebrows.

The older I get the more I enjoy doing skincare and putting lots and lots of makeup on - it makes me feel good. I’d never do Botox! Skincare and makeup over Botox any day (if you want to).

Why can’t we just be left the fuck alone, to age and have faces that move and show our expressions and feelings

No one is forcing you to do it…..what are you really so angry about?

I’ve had Botox in my forehead a couple of times now. I’m 60. I can still frown and wiggle my brows expressively so there’s nothing frozen about my appearance. I just don’t have a permanent frowny, slightly worried expression, which bears no relation to what my thoughts and mood actually are. I don’t think my friends and family are mistaking me for anyone else, so I have no concerns about looking identical to all the other millions of women having the same procedure.

I don’t see it as wildly different from keeping fit, at the right weight, getting a good haircut (I’m grey and I like it), wearing makeup and nice clothes. I don’t feel especially oppressed by these preferences, but some might argue this is’false consciousness’ and that I have so deeply ingested these horrific standards of beauty that I cannot tell the difference between my own inner prompting and external pressures. Oh well.

You’re completely wrong that celebrity men don’t get botox - of course they do. Increasingly fillers and face lifts, too (see Brad Pitt, John Travolta, Tom Cruise).

At what age are we allowed to actually look old and it’s okay?

What ever age you want, you just need to have the ability to ignore the noise,

Nope not frozen at all, personally my make up looks a lot better than a ton of line marks on my forehead. Can’t wait for my next top up of Botox

I’m 43 and have been getting Botox for the past 6 years, the first time just before my wedding.

Some back story if you’ll permit me:

After never having any skin issues, including as a teen, I came off the pill in my early 30s to try to conceive. Cue awful spots, hyperpigmentation and ultimately melasma in a number of areas on my face. Sadly after a number of years with no success, I was back on the pill and focused on improving my skin so I could feel confident again, especially with my upcoming wedding in mind.

I spent a fortune on various skincare products (including prescription strength tretinoin) as well as chemical peels to reduce the discoloured areas and improve the general texture and tone of my skin.

Whilst this did hugely improve things, I was still very conscious of the remaining flaws / problem areas and this included a long, deep frown line across the middle of my forehead in which any foundation I wore in order to cover blemishes / even out the dark patches would gather and look awful - both in real life and in pictures.

After some thought, discussion with my DH and lots of research on the right, properly qualified and experienced practitioner, I decided to get Botox so I wouldn’t end up looking back on my wedding photos and fixating on my big frown line.

I was so pleased with the results I’ve continued with Botox every 4-5 months or so (excluding height of COVID lockdowns of course). Why? Because of how much better it makes me feel about myself and how I look. So, for me it’s worth every penny.

I don’t have Botox to the extent my face is ‘frozen’. In fact, if you were to interact with me in real life you’d likely consider me naturally, demonstrably expressive - whether with facial expressions or my energetic hand gestures!! I may not be able to frown but believe me, people know when I’m unhappy, disgruntled, confused etc.

I appreciate it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea and don’t think any less of others who choose not to have any procedures done. I certainly don’t consider natural faces to be less beautiful than tweaked ones. I just think it comes down to personal choice and respecting everyone’s right to make theirs, ideally without any judgement.

I’m angry that women are held to ridiculous beauty and youth standards.. I thought that was quite obvious to be honest.

Do we get better treatment from others or have a better life if we look fresher? Probably.

And there you go

Love (LOVE!) my frozen forehead!! My body, my choice!

54 & most emphatically doing it for ME! Along with a little lip filler (no trout pout)& weight loss jabs (did the first 20 kilos without. The next 10 with).
Healthy & really fucking happy with it.

‘Frozen puffed up face’, ‘Alien like’ ‘weird’… just a few comments on this thread that ‘isn’t a woman bashing thread’ 🤔

Perhaps women are just conditioned to judge one another continuously.

Live and let live I say. Botox isn’t compulsory, it’s a choice. Like colouring your hair, having a tattoo or multiple piercings. It’s a look some like yet others wouldn’t choose… what’s the problem!

Be secure in who you are, if you embrace your fine lines, good for you! If you don’t- no problem. Don’t waste your time bashing each other in threads over it.

I have never heard from a botox user that they feel superior to someone who’s got wrinkles. The bashing only comes from women who don’t use it and is usually cloaked in faux concern about beauty standards. I stand by the term bashing. It’s the same vibe as “I’m not a girly girl” or “I’m not like other girls” - often attention seeking and doing nothing actually helpful for women. And no, it’s not aggressive defence. We’re just tired of hearing about it and eventually bite.
But we’ll have to agree to disagree on this, there is no middle ground. You can gracefully frown with judgement, I can’t and I’m quite happy about it.

People who have frozen faces have gone to someone who doesn’t actually know how to inject properly. Real specialists inject and lift the face where needed and stop the lines etc but non of the movement

What’s puffing up my face?

Oh shush. I have Botox about once a year. I’m neither frozen nor expressionless because I have an excellent injector. That’s such a nonsensical old trope.

I am however, unlined at 52. I like this. I don’t expect others to follow suit, although 9 of my friends now see my aesthetic doctor because they asked me about my skincare regime. I happen to think we’re lucky nowadays to have quick and easy remedies to unattractive lines. Good luck to anyone that enjoys their wrinkles - I don’t.

The enormous amounts of filler that people who have atrophied their facial muscles over many years are then required to have shot into their faces to offset the sag from muscle atrophy. It's a look.

I think it depends how much work you get, I have seen some people have small amount of work and looks ok, but have one friend who was extremely beautiful, but has ruined her face by using too much.

I don't think you can blame men for this, most men I know don't like it either.

I suppose it’s because I can… I saw a photo a few years back and I was shocked at my face! Of course I have aged, but I saw this photo and thought gosh, I look tired, I can see all the lines…I looked tired so that’s why I thought I’d have Botox… and I love it!
unashamedly love it! I have no issue with people who do or don’t have it, each to their own! But for me, I wanted to be refreshed, I feel better for having it…. I have a smooth line free forehead, my eyes are unlined and I look better…. You may disagree if you met me… but I know I do, it’s purely for me!
of course it’s fine for women to age, have lines, wrinkles, and if they don’t want to look ‘refreshed’ that’s fine! But I choose to do the opposite!

And you know I have filler based on….

This!

I get Botox in two places on my forehead as I have really deep lines that I didn’t like. I can still move my face and I keep my crows feet cos I think they’re cute! To each their own I say but I don’t think practitioners should be allowed to take it as far as some do.

I have a bit of Botox occasionally.

I look happier and fresher when I have it. People comment how I look good / fresh faced after I have it (I let it fully wear off in between, get it less than once a year). I haven't been blessed with good bone structure or particularly good looks and have inherited my father's very wrinkly smile so eliminating a few of the wrinkles that make me look frowny.

I work in an industry that is sadly a bit ageist and as much as it annoys me and wish it wasn't true, looking older for my age could affect my job prospects.

I find most people I know who are really anti any tweakments tend to be those who have great cheekbones, no jowls, good skin etc.

I didn't say you personally had filler. You asked what would be puffing up your face, in response to this (after saying you don't want to ever age):

Ever? Will you be pushing 80 with a frozen, puffed up face?

After Botox, come the attempts to fill in the sag. Unless you imagine every older famous actress and tv personality walking around with strange puffy faces now was actually going for that look.