A Botox ad says it “removes deep, persistent wrinkles on the face by relaxing muscles that cause the skin to crease.” Personally, I’d like to remove the crow’s feet and parentheses around the mouth, not to mention railroad tracks between the eyebrows. But then I learned 5 sobering secrets about Botox.
1. It disables forehead muscles and limits natural expression.
Consider actors who use it. Doesn’t Botox limit their dramatic work—their portrayals of anger, sorrow, surprise, regret, disappointment? If we use Botox, we’ll also sacrifice some non-verbal cues. Yet, a new Botox ad claims, “It’s all about freedom of expression.”
2. It requires time and money.
Let’s say we try it anyway. According to my aesthetician friend, the Botox effect wears off within two to three months and has to be injected again and again to keep the skin unwrinkled.
3. It can relax non-targeted muscles.
Getting Botox means taking the risk it might cause other muscles such as eyebrows or eyelids to sag.
4. It eradicates signs of our individuality.
Botox faces look artificially smooth. Natural faces reveal unique life experiences. Thinking, problem-solving, puzzling—these pursuits tug our facial muscles into patterns which become ingrained and part of who we are.
5. It conditions us to accept high tech “fixes” that may ultimately hurt us.
When science comes up with a pill or a computer chip that will preserve or restore youth, will we buy into that, too?
Dorian Gray did.
How sad it is!” he said. “I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. It will never be older than this particular day of June… If it were only the other way! If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that-for that-I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!”*
Note: I’m blogging about ageing and anti-ageing issues because I’m writing a novel that explores these themes.
*http://www.amazon.com/Picture-Dorian-Gray-Oscar-Wilde/dp/1557427968
Norma Nill 
Nice post!
It always seems odd to me to want to get rid of wrinkles bad enough to use a toxic substance. Kind of reminds me of the use of powders in the middle ages to make women’s skin more pale. They used lead and/ or arsenic in those!
I like your picture of a doll because it helps to highlight the fact that erasing lines from our faces also erases some of our life ‘history’.
Oooh, I didn’t know about the poisons in powder. That’s a good reminder that cosmetic fads don’t always coincide with what is healthy. Thanks for your thoughts, Laurie!
I thought you might be leading up to something about your novel! Good job. We’d have no problems with wrinkling and sagging if we just held our hands behind our ears and chins to smooth them out, LOL
I like your “handy” solution, Judy. 🙂 Thanks for writing!