Survey Reveals What People Really Think of Botox and Fillers to Combat Aging
When I was young, freckled and puffy faced, without a wrinkle or a line but merely a few scars from my childhood, I remember thinking to myself I WILL age gracefully. I will accept my lines and wrinkles that slowly appear on my face over time as marks of a life well lived, of decades spent laughing, sobbing, and everything in between.
But here I am, a few years away from my 40th birthday… and with every overhead light that shines down and spotlights a newly formed line or deepening crevice on my face, I am reminded of my age. And instead of seeing these "age reminders" as I thought I would when I was much younger, I just feel like I look old and tired rather than happy to see a map of my life lived staring back at me. I don't feel like they signify times in my life even as much as my tattoos do. And since I'd never think of removing my tattoos, why do I so badly want to remove my lines?
It's not that I want to look younger, but my visible lines annoy me now as much as pimples did when I was an angsty teen. And since ugly zits still pop up every now and again, I am suddenly reminded that I'm caught somewhere in between old age and young. But unlike a blemish that disappears in a few days hopefully without a mark left, my lines just get worse over time.
Now, I'm sure I notice my lines and wrinkles more than anyone else does. In fact, I'm positive because the man I see most, my husband, barely notices them {or he's just being nice}. And according to the Dove Beauty Sketches, I'm guessing many women are harsher critics on themselves than a stranger would be when describing their looks.
So of course I've been thinking about Botox, fillers, and the like as an answer to my lines and new wrinkles and have often said things like if I get fillers now, it will prevent the lines from ever happening. But my husband is absolutely against it. And I'm terrified of it too, so as much as I like the quick-fix idea, I'm pretty sure I'll never ever do it.
Related: 5 quick fixes for tired faces
A few weeks ago I wrote a piece on my own thoughts on using Botox and fillers as an anti-aging technique and asked YOU to either leave a comment with your thoughts on the topic and/or take a quick anonymous survey so that I could get a better understanding of not only what women thought about the filler products, but who was using it openly or behind closed doors, etc. And as promised, here are my survey results.
First of all, I'd like to thank everyone for participating! I got 371 survey responses, numerous private emails as well as tons of comments that were all really great to read and extremely helpful.
Reading the survey results above, it seems like most of the answers were similar to mine: "I want to try but I'm afraid". But I was surprised to see that an option, which I added much later {simply because I forgot to include it} came in as a close second: "I've never done it, nor do I want to". And as much as that made me smile thinking that women are either uninfluenced by the world's obsession with youth, or are terrified of injecting poison into their faces, it also made me think that 10 years ago I would have voted the exact same way. But since this isn't a 10-year-long study, and since in 10 years more, there will be new products on the market, it's difficult to remove all bias from the topic or results.
But still, I enjoyed reading all the comments on the post as well because I not only learned a few things like because your face is frozen in some places and can't create the usual expression, new lines form in other places where your facial muscles still constrict, leaving you with MORE lines, but that there are new products on the market which are better, more natural, and offer greater results. On the other hand, there were many woman who swear by the fillers and who are extremely happy with their results.
So just as any other beauty products, one thing doesn't work for everyone. I think there's a trial and error component to all products and if it works for you, then do it and if it doesn't, try something else. I've often referred to life as one big human experiment and only time will tell what results positively or what fails miserably… and then, on to the next.
* The polls are still open if you'd like to anonymously Take the Survey HERE * Go back to my original post What Do YOU Think about Botox & Fillers? to read the comments for yourself.
By Meagan Tintari
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