Botox Cosmetic is a wonderful for the women who hates her brow and crow’s feet wrinkles, but it sure costs a pretty penny!

Would you rather pay your electric bill or get Botox instead?

Botox is a really good product if you have super strong expression wrinkles around your face.  It works great on furrow lines in your brow, including the vertical ones people can get dead center between their eyes and also random horizontal wrinkles some women get above their eye brow area.  It also works great to reduce the look of heavy crow’s feet when you smile.  Crow’s feet are expression wrinkles under your eyes, that when you smile broadly can extend quite far down your cheek.  Botox actually does a good job of smoothing out those wrinkles by reducing the movement when you do those wrinkly expressions.

Botox Personality

Some women will get Botox without thinking twice about what they are injecting into themselves.  As long as it’s been proven realistically safe, this type of women has no objection to getting injected if the Botox smooths their expression wrinkles the way they would like it to.  Other women think it is totally discusting, and would never in a million years get some mysterious toxin injected into themselves.  From the women I have talked to at least, they seem to have strong opinions about it either way (love it or hate it).  I certainly wouldn’t want to sway any women into trying something that they think is harmful. 

What is Botox?

Botox is the trade name for te neurotoxic protein called botulinum toxin that is produced by the bacteria Clostridium boltulinum.  In large enough doses the protein causes botulism, which is a rare paralytic illness that is often linked to food poisening (no wonder many women would never want to get Botox)!

The protein gets used in cosmetic medicine to treat moderate to severe facial wrinkles including a furrowing brow (glabellar lines) and to a certain extend crow’s feet and other facial expression lines.  The cosmetic produres use a small amount of the botulinum toxin that is diluted, called Botox.   The Botox relax’s the contraction of muscles by blocking nerve impulses.  If the muscles can’t contract, the wrinkles relax and soften. Eventually the effect wears off and you have to get it again.

I have read some claims that Botox can permanently help wrinkles by training the face not to make the wrinkle causing expressions, however I personally don’t believe it has any permanent lasting effect – after it wears off your face will revert back to the same old wrinkle making ways (at least that is what I think).  In order for it to work long term, you have to keep getting it.

The Botox controls weakening of muscles which temporarily stops facial expressions that are causing the wrinkles.  The protein is injected with a fine needle and requires no anesthesia.  It takes only a few minutes to get Botox.  The smoothing is evident in about three days and lasts for a few months.  For a few months, the skin is smoother and essentially moves less when those expressions are made.  On some of the good and awful plastic surgery blogs, there are posts of celebrity women where they are made fun of for having “frozen face”.  There is an insinuation is that certain celebrities get so much Botox injected into their faces that they don’t show any expression at all, ergo the nickname for too much Botox – frozen face.

Should you Get Botox?

So, should you get it?  Basically, if you are a very heavy frowner or big on smiling, and you are seriously bothered by major furrows, expression wrinkles, or laugh lines, then it is worth getting in my opinion.  If your expression wrinkles really aren’t that bad, it’s not worth it to get sucked in.  It costs hundreds of dollars to get a treatment and it wears out after a few months, so the cost is huge and should be considered thoroughly before getting sucked into getting Botox regularly.  Remember that if you get Botox and like it, you are talking about an ongoing repeat expense of hundreds of dollars!   If your wrinkles aren’t that bad – don’t do it!

Affording Botox

The main problem is affording it regularly (I can’t).  If you are on a budget you would need to cut other costs to afford it, look for good deals on it, and try to stretch out the time between treatments as far as you possibly can to save money.  I personally try to go without and I try not stress about it.  But when my face starts to look really haggard I may do it and am usually pleased with the result.  I have really strong crow’s feet and I think getting it every now and then has been helpful. 

Stretching the time between treatments is a good money saver and also helps you avoid over doing it to where your face looks frozen and expressionless.  Another money saver is to only get it where you really need it.  If it’s the forehead that’s bad, just get it there and avoid paying for it in more parts of your face that don’t really need it.  If you don’t really need it, it’s literally just money down the drain. 

You will see in my blog that I am majorly averse to spending money on beauty products and services that I don’t really need.  I don’t have a red cent to waste on useless things that really don’t substantially benefit me.  I save everywhere and anywhere I can, and I only spend my money on the things I really want.  You have to pick and choose what you want to spend on.

Side Effects of Botox

The biggest side effect of Botox of which I am aware is that it can cause a headache.  I have also read that injected too close to the eyes, Botox can cause a drooping of the eyelids that would remain until the Botox wore off.  It can also cause an allergic reaction, respiratory infection, Nausea and heartburn.  Obviously this is a bacterium product and so God only knows what other long term dangers may lurk in Botox use.  The fact that it is essentially a toxic toxin makes some women never ever want to use it, even if it is diluted into a so called safer form.  You should not get Botox if you are expecting or nursing either because of possible side effects.  Because it is a toxin, nooone can really say what the true long term effect of Botox is, which is why so many women choose to forego and not risk getting it.

Wrinklerexia

You don’t want to get too hung up on every wrinkle such that you start to waste your money on Botox that you really don’t need.  I have seen Nicole Kidman get bashed pretty consistently in the celebrity blogs for having frozen face, wherein she has no facial expressions.  I am not sure why she is picked on for this, but her pale skin might contribute to the frozen look.  Marcia Cross (from Desperate Housewives) is also a fair redhead with the same frozen face look.  I think their fair tight skin contributes to them looking a bit frozen and I am not sure that they are really the Botox junkies they are accused of being.  On the other hand, they probably do get Botox as they certainly can afford it and their faces don’t seem to wrinkle! Both Nicole Kidman and Marcia Cross have astoundingly wrinkle free faces, so it makes one think that they may have had other plastic surgery procedures on their faces as well. I don’t think their tight as drum faces can be attributed entirely to Botox.

Here is a thought: stop smiling and frowning (then you won’t need Botox)!  Focus on getting more relaxed as opposed to giddy, and reduce stress so you don’t think about anything that makes you frown.  Voila!  Your face will be smoother and you get to keep your money too!  Or, switch your focus to bigger and better problems, such as health and fitness.  If you don’t want laugh lines, you better stop reading this blog.