A Unicorn In A World Of Botox

Hi. I am Amy and I just turned 40 and I have a confession: I have never gotten Botox (or any other type of injectable).

What I am quickly coming to realize is that makes me very unique these days because so many women do. It sort of makes me a unicorn because I feel so rare.

Do I think there is anything wrong with getting botox? Heck no! I am all for whatever makes you feel your best and your happiest.

Everyone is different and we should all support differences no matter what they are. But for me, at least right now, Botox isn’t an option.

I started to realize that I was among a small minority in my 30s when I noticed that no one had lines on their forehead. Then I heard friends talking about their Botox injections. I see pictures on social media of people younger than me getting it. I guess I was late to the party when I realized that it wasn’t just something women in their 50s and 60s did, but women in their 20s and 30s.

People are now calling it preventative (as in ” if you can’t wrinkle your forehead you are less likely to develop wrinkles”). 

Deep down, I have the strange fear that they will link it to brain diseases later in life for some reason. Call me paranoid; I can’t put trust in it for some reason.

I did a quick google search titled “What is Botox” and do you know what I read: “Botox is a drug made from a toxin produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. It’s the same toxin that causes a life-threatening type of food poisoning called botulism.”

A life-threatening food poisoning bacteria put directly into your face? That just sounds scary.

As moms, I feel like we have so much pressure in our everyday lives for everything- feed your kids the right foods, make sure your exercise and stay healthy, pay the bills, work your job, teach your kids to be good humans, keep up with appointments and room mom duties and extracurricular kid activities, and on-and-on. IT. IS. EXHAUSTING.

To just exist as a human being these days is tiring and then you throw the mom duties in and you just want to collapse before 9am. Botox makes us look better and feel better about ourselves, I totally get it. It is a bit of a fountain of youth in a needle and sometimes looking our best translates to feeling our best.

What I tend to question is eating organic healthy food and exercising, but then putting bacteria in your face? It seems like such a juxtaposition on the surface.

But I am by no means an expert- just a mom who has wrinkles in her forehead. (And truth be told, I started sleeping with wrinkle patches to help to combat my fine lines. I didn’t say they didn’t bother me at all…)

You know what the worst part is- I am going to look even OLDER because I am choosing not to get it. Everyone will have their gorgeous smooth skin and I will be rocking my wrinkles and seeming older than my age. For now, I am okay with it. Am I saying I won’t ever get Botox? No. Because I never say never to anything (besides another kid…) and I don’t know how I will feel 2, 5, or ten years down the line. People change, wrinkles grow deeper, and maybe I will overcome my fear. But for now, I am happy to be a unicorn and sleep with my wrinkle patches. 

How do you feel about it? Have you ever gotten Botox?

 

2 COMMENTS

  1. Amy you are a rockstar – as ANYONE who knows you, is fully aware! I must say working for years in a world of dermatology and having what I refer to as an “8-head” (not a forehead), I caved and got botox early. I do still feel it is one of my few guilty pleasures as I haven’t done anything else majorly cosmetic. I feel like we are all unicorns in our circles somehow – I’ve had no breast augmentation, neither my husband or myself have any tattoos, etc. We all do what works for us! I’ve always struggled with confidence, so when something like botox really brings me up a notch, I go with it.

    I am LOVING your blogs for AMB!

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