I have a little morning routine. When I get back from the school run I make myself a coffee, sit in utter heavenly silence for 5 minutes assessing the breakfast carnage, and then I pick up my phone and start looking at the news of the day and in particular anything that might be of interest to you guys in the aesthetics world.

Today, a story on an Irish news outlet caught my eye. The headline says: “Is this where we’re at now? Botox and filler is now as normal as dying your hair.”

Hmmm.. really?

Undoubtedly the market is huge and it’s growing. Undoubtedly social media has contributed to younger women being exposed to more images of other young women who have had treatments and coupled with reality TV and Love Island contestants parading their big lips, there is now a particular aesthetics ideal pursued by a certain section of society.

But Stefanie Preissner, an author and podcaster, said that ‘people never used to talk about their Botox or fillers – but now they wear it like a badge of honour. She said the change has increased pressure on people to get on bandwagon. “It is not an overt pressure,” she said. “Nobody is saying, you should do this, you have to do this, but like anything else, it is kind of a subtle pressure you seem to pick up on. It is kind of like everyone dying their hair or everyone wearing a particular brand of shoes.

“This has become - I don’t know if I only noticed since people took off their masks - as common as eyebrow waxing, and it’s often happening in the same places.

“People just seem to be going around with these fuller lips that are also like tinted. They tint the skin on their lips. The frown lines have gone. If I tell someone something surprising, I can’t tell if they’re surprised or not – I’m not getting a reaction.

“But they look great and I think it has just become so common now that people are like, ‘yeah I got fillers. Before it was kind of like Fight Club. If you got Botox or fillers, you didn’t tell anyone. You didn’t speak about it. You pretended it didn’t happen.”

Do you sense negative undertones here? And a conflict. On the one had she says people look great yet it seems odd to her they say why they look great. I do like the Fight Club analogy, people didn’t used to talk about it or admit to it but is she arguing it should remain that way?

To Tox Or Not To Tox

According to Newstalk, Stefanie said she now finds herself questioning whether she should be getting the treatment.

“Now people are like, oh yeah this is the person that does my fillers or I just have to go and get my Botox, I’ll meet you for lunch after and because it’s so overt and people are so proud of it - which is great – it’s kind of like, should I be doing this too?

“It’s so common now that I’m thinking, maybe I should because I do have frown lines and I do have some wrinkles coming up. Am I allowed to just have them or, because there is a solution, should I be using the solution and not walking around with the lines on my face?”

“I do think that, when the solution is so obvious and so available, people are like why wouldn’t you just [do it]?”

Is She Right?

Now, I was kinda with Stefanie up until now. She said it’s great people are proud and yes there has been a normalisation of these treatments and slowly the stigma is diminishing. Solutions to the things that bother us about our faces are becoming more mainstream, acceptable and available. I’m not convinced, however, that everyone considers Botox and fillers with as much flippancy as they do having their hair dyed or is as open about them as Stefanie suggests. In fact, when we surveyed patients, 73% of them told us they don’t feel comfortable talking to friends about aesthetic treatments, 77% don’t feel comfortable talking to family about them and only 8% would talk to work colleagues about them.

What Does She Really Want To Say?

And then it gets really interesting, Stefanie said. “People feel that their basic face, untouched, is not enough and there is a pressure to augment yourself in these ways to make yourself more presentable and that I think is dangerous. If you want to do it because you feel it’s good for your mental health because you feel like you look better, that’s fine but I would be looking to dig down into why do you feel that, when your face looks a certain way, you feel better about yourself?”

Aha. There we have it. Stefanie believes people have treatments to ‘augment’ and that if you’re unhappy with your frown lines and crows feet there is a probably a deep psychological reason for this - that it’s an internal, emotional issue manifesting through appearance desires.

However, the vast majority of patients don’t need to dig down to anything! In the same way they don’t need to dig down to understand why they feel better when they’re hair is freshly highlighted and their nails are done and why they feel more confident with makeup on or their eyebrows micro bladed.

Yes, if women are choosing hideously oversized lips and unrecognisably changing the shape of their eyes there needs to be some duty of care given by the provider. But don’t lump everyone and anyone who has aesthetic treatments together. It skews reality and perpetuates the idea that it’s fine to colour your hair, wear false eyelashes, have a fake tan to make yourself look and therefore feel good, but, if you want a slightly fuller lip or less of an eye bag, there’s probably a bit of a mental issue going on. Sigh.

Botched

Unless something has changed in Ireland, Stefanie is also confused about the industry. She said: “Fillers are not regulated which is the biggest issue I think with it. Botox is regulated and you have to have a qualification to inject Botox, but fillers are not. So, you can go and get your nails done and your hair done and someone injecting into your face, all in the same place.”

However no treatments are regulated and anyone can inject either Botox or fillers so it’s likely Stefanie is confusing what’s a POM and what’s not. Notwithstanding, she is making an important point. Patients do consider these beauty treatments because so many non-medics offer them. It is pretty easy to get some Botox alongside your pedicure. And this is also part responsible for the severely augmented lips and faces that Stefanie associates with non-surgical aesthetic treatments and the unrealistic expectations of ‘beauty’ that many young women now seek.

It’s the podcaster’s last remark that really revealed where she sits with the whole notion of cosmetic treatments.

“Apart from the regulation, it is just like, is this where we’re at now? Do we have to inject stuff into our face to make ourselves more presentable?”

Do we have to do anything we do to make ourselves more presentable?

A Long Way To Go

Stefanie is perhaps a bit torn. She’s in her early thirties and experiencing the first signs of ageing but the idea of injectables conflicts with a inherent philosophical position that centres around the pressure on women and rebelling against expectations - but she wants to look and feel good too.

It’s not uncommon and it’s a challenge for the industry. On the one hand we want these treatments to be considered as normal and ordinary as beauty treatments, on the other we want to educate woman they’re treatments not to be taken lightly, there should always be a thorough consultation and assessment and they should always be carried out by a medically qualified aesthetics practitioner. We want women to embrace their natural anatomy and remain true to their identity with subtle treatments, but we have to talk about ageing and aesthetics concerns, which feels antifeminist (it’s not, by the way ;-) )

We want people to understand that there are solutions available to them which are nothing to be ashamed or embarrassed about, that when they’re carried out by someone qualified and experienced they are done sympathetically and subtly. We want society to accept that wanting to address a concern with your appearance isn’t the same as wanting to change your appearance. We want commentators to realise that the end result of injectables is a increase in confidence and self-esteem, which is no different to when we wear makeup or have our hair cut. We want people who talk about cosmetic treatments to acknowledge that improving how we look isn’t a symptom of a deeper personal problem or unresolved mental issue, we just want to look a bit better!

Play Your Part

Your role in this is to keep educating patients. What you do represents the very best the industry offers. Use your patient’s stories, share their progress, journeys and their before and after photos. You’re the antidote to the beautician’s big lips and fox eye’d 19 year old patient on TikTok. Show other people the 50 year old who has subtle cheek fillers, the 40 year old who softens her nasolabial folds and the 30 year old who looks like exactly like a healthy and happy 30 year old because she’s had tear-trough fillers. Show that guy who has had non-surgical rhinoplasty and the menopausal woman whose skin has been transformed by you.

Get reviews from your patients and share these. Nine times out of ten they will say how you made them feel, rather than how they look. If you’re subscribed to GlowdayPRO we’ll collect these for you and showcase them on your Glowday profile, along with your before and after images, which you can use on your social media/ in your email marketing.

Perceptions will eventually change. Stigmas will be smashed and misconceptions quelled. We’ve just got to keep educating, sharing and talking! And maybe, just maybe, Stefanie will be one of those before and after photos and save a lot of money from the therapy she doesn’t need.