Stacey Solomon: I’ve tried Botox – but this is why I’ll NEVER inject poison into my face again
I RARELY go for facials, but decided to treat myself after weeks of piling on fairy make-up during a stint in the theatre.
My skin was feeling tired, spotty and clogged up. It needed a break from the thick foundation and glitter overload.
So I found a little place near the theatre and headed off for a pamper in between shows.
When I got there, I lay on the bed whilst the therapist took a microscopic look at my skin.
The first thing she said to me was, “Have you started using Botox yet?”
I was instantly taken aback by the question because firstly, I wasn’t sure why she was asking and secondly, I wasn’t sure what she meant by it.
I told her I hadn’t, but explained how I’d tried it once and hated the way I lost the expression in my forehead. It also gave me an extremely shiny, almost sweat-like, complexion, which was not a good look.
The therapist looked at me in horror. I’m not joking! She looked at me as if I’d just said I’d killed a kitten.
The words that came out of her mouth next, honestly, left me in utter disbelief.
“You really need to start thinking seriously about having Botox. If you don’t, it will be too late for you and you’ll never be able to fix the deep set wrinkles and smile lines because they will have gone too far!”
My initial reaction was fear. I thought, “Oh no! I must look so tired and old that this woman feels the need to call an emergency Botox intervention” and “How many days do I have before I look like an old leather handbag?”
My second reaction was anger. “How dare this beautician make me feel as though I should be doing something cosmetic that I do NOT want to do,” I thought.
I walked into that clinic happy with how I looked.
Now I’m lying on a bed in a panic that if I don’t shove poison in my face ASAP, I’m going to age 1000 years a second.
Luckily, I had enough strength and will to say, “No. Thank you!” In fact, I didn’t even go ahead with the facial because I was so furious! I just got up and left.
Annoyingly, I didn’t call her out on what she’d just said because I couldn’t really hold my words together, I was THAT furious.
In hindsight, I wish I’d have been truthful and said: “You are what’s wrong with a whole generation of young people!
"I’m 28 and confident in my skin but you managed to make me question everything I’m happy with in myself.
"How many young girls have you scared into injecting their faces with poison for vanity?
"You’re not a dermatologist, or a doctor, or a medical professional of any kind, yet you feel it’s okay inject Botox into the faces of people who haven’t even asked you for it?
"And all for your own financial gain. Where’s your moral compass? Shame on you!”
The Facts About Botox
- Botox is the most popular cosmetic surgery treatment - with over a whopping six million Botox treatments administered every year.
- Botox freezes muscle movement by blocking neuro-transmitters and this effect lasts for 4-6 months.
- Botox is a neurotoxin derived from Clostridium botulinum - an organism found in the natural environment where it is pretty much inactive and non-toxic.
- Botox should always be undertaken by a qualified medical professional to ensure that you are getting the correct amount in the right area.Visiting someone without the correct qualifications and experience could lead to asymmetrical results, muscle drooping, frozen expressions as well as various other dangerous consequences.
- In rare cases you can develop serious problems after Botox which include blurred vision or trouble breathing, depending on which are you've had injected.
- The website estimate each Botox injection costs £150-£350 per session.
Just to make it clear, I do not have a problem with anyone who decides to have Botox.
It’s an individual’s choice to do whatever they please to their own bodies. However I have a MASSIVE problem with the notion that people think it’s okay telling young people that they NEED Botox and fillers.
What’s disgraceful is that any Tom, Dick and Harry can open up a clinic and administer Botox.
But guys, we don’t know what type or grade of Botox they’re injecting and lots of these people have no idea about the biology of the human face. I don’t know about you, but that scares the s**t out of me.
How is it legal that you can walk into a beauty salon and be injected by somebody who could know nothing about what they’re doing? No.
Just recently there was an article about a woman who was left PARALYSED by dodgy Botox.
But on top of that, why are we being made to feel that ageing is the worst possible thing that could ever happen to a person? WE ARE ALL GETTING OLDER!
Just because you’ve been Botoxing since your twenties doesn’t magically reduce your biological age.
We are all ageing and eventually we are all going to end up in the same place. It is okay to get older and look older. It doesn’t make you any less of a human being or any less beautiful.
Ageing is a natural process and quite frankly if you get old enough to adorn a beautiful array of wrinkles all over your face then you’re extremely lucky as far as I’m concerned. What a privilege.
I’m hoping to look like Rose Dewitt Bukater Calvert from The Titanic when I’m older.
She’s my skin goals. Ooh and anthropologist and chimpanzee expert Jane Goodall, she is my life goals.
But, I digress. The bottom line is we should NOT be pressuring young people into dangerously administering poison into their faces by giving them the fear of ageing.
We should be celebrating ageing and the privilege.
When I grow up, I don’t want to look like anyone but me, with some deep set and fine line wrinkles all over my face showing that my smile filled a wonderful, long life that I’ve been privileged enough to enjoy.
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