Botox is getting younger and younger. The trend of perfection feeds social networks

Botox, wrinkle smoothing, lip filler or cheekbone enhancement. Today, aesthetic medicine offers this and much more, and more and more people are using these services.

Seznam Zprávám confirmed this to several clinics contacted, but they did not want to provide more detailed data in view of the GDPR.

Twenty-three-year-old Aneta, who had fillings done for the first time six months ago, also wanted full lips. He evaluates his experience very positively. “I’ve been pretty insecure all my life and this has helped me a lot. I feel much better that way,” she explains the reasons why she decided to undergo the treatment.

At the same time, she admits that social networks also had a certain influence on her. “It did affect me in some way. Today, everyone has lip fillers and it’s basically normalized, so I thought why not, if it makes me feel better,” she describes.

According to her, a person has the right to do what he sees fit with his body and not be subject to social norms. “I like extravagance, bold eyelashes, tattoos, big lips and I enjoy makeup. I’ve had a few people tell me that I look better when I’m natural. It’s always nice from them, but I don’t feel like myself,” she explains.

Although she perceives the normalization of aesthetic modifications rather positively, she also observes certain negatives, especially among younger girls. “They are very easily influenced, but I personally would not start with lip fillers until I’m in my twenties and with Botox when I start to get wrinkles, so much later. I certainly wouldn’t have had such procedures done as a teenager,” she says.

Doctor Ivana Úlehlová from the Laser Esthetic aesthetic dermatology clinic confirms that young female clients most often come with a wish for more voluminous lips, which can be achieved by applying hyaluronic acid.

“Girls see the trend on social media and then come to the doctor saying they want their lips to look exactly like this. However, this is often not possible due to the structure of the face, and it would not look nice,” he explains.

It thus points out that doctors often have to balance on the border of naturalness and at the same time balance the demands of clients, which are often unrealistic. “In addition to the lips, sometimes they also want artificial highlighting of the cheekbones, but we do not allow ourselves to be forced into such large-scale interventions,” he adds.

Doctor Petra Moravcová from Prague’s Divine Clinic is also noticing the trend. “I see this normalization as problematic. It’s a trend of perfection that’s being developed abundantly through social networks. I think there will be an increase in interest, but I am still a supporter of natural,” he says.

Not only is the number of women interested in similar modifications increasing, the age at which women and girls first come to the clinic is also decreasing. This is especially true in the case of lip fillers.

“People under the age of 18 are also interested, but we do not carry out the treatment in these cases. I try to talk them out of it because I don’t want to perform them, but such clients still come,” Moravcová describes, and she also points to the influence of social networks, which contributes to clients’ dissatisfaction with their appearance.

Ivana Úlehlová also registers a decrease in the age at which clients first come to the clinic. “Women come here for lip fillers for the first time in their 20s, but sometimes even younger. Recently, a 16-year-old client came to us with her mother. But we don’t make adjustments at such a young age,” he says.

Both doctors agree that, even in the case of Botox, more and more younger clients are coming to the clinic who don’t even have wrinkles yet. For them, Botox is a certain prevention of aging, but paradoxically, it can bring more problems for them in the future.

After some time it simply stops working. “Botox is a toxic substance to which the immune system somehow reacts. So if you start Botox too early and at frequent intervals, it will stop working for you within 10 to 15 years,” explains Moravcová. “You have to find a reasonable balance, after all, wrinkles belong on the face,” he concludes.

The topic of botox and similar aesthetic treatments has been taboo in society for a long time. Although it is not without controversy even today, it is being significantly destigmatized, especially among younger people. This is also confirmed by the fact that men are also increasingly interested in the procedures.

“We definitely register that more men are interested in similar procedures. Over the last 10 years, I would say that the increase is up to 15 percent. They are often men at a young age. The topic of aesthetic procedures is generally less stigmatized today than in the past, but we are talking especially about the young, where it is simply a fashion. I have a number of older clients who, for example, hide botox from their husbands,” Moravcová explains.

The rise of the trend was also caused by the fact that more and more workplaces, especially beauty salons, offer these services. According to the interviewed doctors, the problem is that salon employees do not have the necessary qualifications, and they can therefore harm clients.

“This does not belong in the hands of beauticians at all, as they do not have a good knowledge of the anatomy of the face. They can then cause big problems, which then have unfathomable consequences,” explains Úlehlová.

“Unfortunately, we are also registering this problem. Beauticians have no idea about the anatomy of the face and can easily damage the client’s face there. For example, it paralyzes muscles somewhere else, your eyelid falls off or paralyzes part of your face, and the person then looks like they have nerve palsy,” adds Moravcová.

Doctor Ondřej Kodet from the Dermatovenerology Clinic of the General University Hospital in Prague also urges caution. “If the performance is performed by an inexperienced person, permanent damage can also occur. The application of botox in aesthetic medicine should always be performed by a specialist who is trained in this issue, preferably a doctor with certification in the field of corrective dermatology,” he says. This also applies to other procedures, such as lip fillers.

According to Kodet, however, they don’t often meet such people in the hospital. “Of course, we occasionally notice a failed procedure on a patient, but these patients then turn more to the workplace where the procedure was performed,” he concludes.

Aneta also used the salon option. According to her, the price was decisive. “I’ve always been to the salon, the clinics are unnecessarily overpriced. Of course, I considered the risks, the work from doctors will probably be of better quality, but I think that beautiful lips can be made without complications even in a salon. But of course you need to check whether the beautician is qualified for it and read a lot of reviews,” he concludes.