Everything There Is To Know About Preventative Botox in Your 20s

Botox in Your 20s

If you’re in your early, mid, or late 20s and thinking of getting Botox injections, you’re in the right place. I’ve found answers for some of the most common questions regarding preventative Botox in your 20s all based on research as well as my experience from getting Botox in my twenties.

Because when it comes to anti-aging, being preventative is of the essence. The logic is to delay the signs of aging before they start appearing in the first place.

Maybe you’re not actually dealing with wrinkles but want to prevent them from appearing early. Or maybe you’re already seeing some lines settling in your forehead and want to smooth them out before they get worse.

Either way, here you’ll find everything there is to know about getting Botox in your 20s, its advantages, and disadvantages.

What Is Botox?

Here’s a quick recap on how Botox works. Botox is a type of wrinkle relaxer used to weaken the muscles in the injected area (1).

With Botox injections, the facial muscles are not able to contract as much or at all. That’s how Botox reduces facial wrinkles. The wrinkles come back when the injections wear off, which is usually between 3-6 months.

Botox is the mainstream injection to target certain types of wrinkles called expression lines. Expression lines are the ones that appear with facial expressions. These are the ones we see around the eyes, on the forehead, and between the brows.

In your 20s, these expression lines are called active wrinkles. They disappear when you relax your face. As you age, they settle in and become static wrinkles.

What Is The Difference Between Botox and Preventative Botox?

In the simplest way, Botox reduces the look of existing wrinkles whereas preventative Botox prevents active wrinkles from turning into static wrinkles.

I’d like to elaborate and paint a better picture here. We smile, we laugh, we frown, and all those feelings turn into expressions on our faces in the form of lines.

When the feeling is gone or when you stop frowning, the lines disappear. Those are the lines that you’re trying to get rid of and prevent from worsening by getting injections.

As these lines are the ones we see in our 20s and maybe in our early 30s, preventative Botox usually refers to injections you get during these years.

Does Preventative Botox Work?

Botox treats existing wrinkles. And as long as you keep getting injections, you can prevent those wrinkles from worsening or deepening. But can Botox, in the most literal sense of the word, prevent wrinkles from forming?

Obviously, this would require extensive research with potentially inconclusive results in every corner. The good news is that even though there is not enough literature on the subject, one particular study provided impressive results.

The subjects of the study were two identical twin females. Their observation took 13 years and there was another 6- year follow-up. One of the twins had regular Botox injections over the course of 19 years whereas the other one only had a couple of injections.

The photographs demonstrated that the twin with the injections had fewer wrinkles in number and had softer wrinkles at rest.

The authors concluded that “Long-term treatment with Botox can prevent the development of imprinted facial lines that are visible at rest” (2). So this rare, unique study suggests that Botox can actually prevent wrinkles.

What Are The Pros of Botox in Your 20?

Though these are all subjective, there are benefits to getting preventative Botox injections in your 20s.

1. It’s prevention.

First of all, you deal with wrinkles before they turn into static wrinkles. Static wrinkles, if it’s too late, sometimes even require dermal fillers to smooth out.

By getting preventative Botox injections in your 20s, you basically take matters into your own hands and keep your skin smooth.

2. It’s cheaper than anti-aging skincare.

Additionally, I think Botox injections are way more cost-effective than anti-aging skincare. Even though you can’t underestimate the effects of a good skincare routine with active ingredients like vitamin C, or retinol, you get faster results with injections.

Because let’s face it, ingredients can be frustrating. The average cost for Botox is about $300. A bottle of SkinCeuticals C E Ferulic Serum runs you $166. Both last for about 4 months.

Skincare requires commitment and dedication whereas Botox is one-time only. And in terms of results, no fancy serum can hold a candle to Botox.

3. It’s temporary.

And lastly, Botox is temporary. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to live with it. You can always stop getting injections if you don’t want to and start getting them when you can afford to.

When injections wear off, the wrinkles don’t come back worse; they just come back as they were.

What Are The Cons of Botox in Your 20s?

Compared to other injections such as fillers, Botox is one of the safest non-invasive producers you can get. So in terms of your skin, there are not many disadvantages as long as you get it done by a professional.

I’m not an injector. But I’ve been getting regular injections and I experienced some issues, which are often overlooked and only noticed by people that are age-obsessed like me.

So there are still disadvantages of Botox you should know about.

1. It may be costly.

Botox usually requires to be renewed every 6 months. So for someone in their 20s, these injections may be costly.

2. It doesn’t work on all types of wrinkles.

Remember that Botox works on expression lines like the ones on the forehead, and around the eyes. So it cannot do anything for other wrinkles such as smile lines.

3. It requires a very experienced injector.

Even though Botox is safe and temporary, it’s all about details and understanding your unique facial anatomy. Because the areas that are injected with Botox do affect the areas that are not injected.

I’d like to give my own experience as an example. Even though I did not do a whole decade-long observation on my face, I did start getting injections in my 20s, which I believed worsened my other wrinkles.

I did get rid of the wrinkles on my forehead, between my brows, and around my eyes thanks to Botox. But when Botox wore off, my smile lines and marionette lines became more visible.

When I first got my injections, my wrinkles were between active and early static wrinkles. Even though my doctor was a certified surgeon, he wasn’t considering my needs and my anatomy.

I have chubby cheeks and I smile with my eyes. And my doctor was pretty generous with Botox around my eyes. That restricted the movement of my cheeks upwards, especially when I smiled.

That caused my other muscles (around my mouth) to overwork to compensate. And it resulted in more prominent wrinkles on the lower part of my face. I also had visible wrinkles under my eyes for some reason.

Below are my pictures so you can better understand what I’m referring to. Keep in mind that these are old, and the resolution isn’t perfect.

Preventative Botox in your 20s - Before and after

As you can see, because my upper face is practically frozen, my smile looks insincere. And I have a bulging under my eyes, which looks like wrinkles. Also, I have divots on my upper cheeks. As my eye area is injected, my cheeks are squished and my face looks way chubbier.

Yes, I was already prone to smile lines and marionette lines because of my cheeks. But they became prominent way before they should have. That’s the reason I don’t get injections for my crow’s feet as often.

I like to keep that area active. And I imagine things would be a lot worse if I kept getting the same injections for years and years. Alternatively, I prefer getting Botox to lift hooded eyes which, honestly, gives me more natural-looking results.

4. It can make you look older than you are.

As I explained, wrong injections can actually give you new wrinkles and make existing ones more visible. So while trying to look youthful, you can look older. I’m 38 now and I look way better than I did in the pictures above.

But Botox causing new wrinkles isn’t something new. When you inject Botox into an area, the surrounding uninjected area tries to compensate for that lack of activity and becomes hyperactive (3).

As a result, you see the formation or worsening of wrinkles, which may make you look older than you are. This is temporary and things go back to normal when you stop getting injections.

But when you’re talking about preventative Botox in your 20s, which requires regular consistent injections, who is to say that those wrinkles won’t settle in and you have a whole new can of worms to deal with?

Should You Get Botox in Your 20s?

It sounds like the answer should be yes. If you can prevent wrinkles with Botox, why not jump on it, right? Personally, I’m glad I started early and I still get Botox. There’s one little catch.

You can get Botox injections in your 20s but they have to be the right injections. The issue is not your age per se, but a thorough understanding of your unique facial anatomy by an experienced professional.

That’s why it’s important to have a healthy conversation with your doctor where they customize the injections, observe, refine, and repeat. So do your research.

Read Next: How Botox Can Slim The Jawline

References:

  1. Satriyasa B. K. (2019). Botulinum toxin (Botox) A for reducing the appearance of facial wrinkles: a literature review of clinical use and pharmacological aspect. Clinical, cosmetic and investigational dermatology12, 223–228. https://doi.org/10.2147/CCID.S202919
  2. Binder W. J. (2006). Long-term effects of botulinum toxin type A (Botox) on facial lines: a comparison in identical twins. Archives of facial plastic surgery8(6), 426–431. https://doi.org/10.1001/archfaci.8.6.426
  3. Kang, S. M., Feneran, A., Kim, J. K., Park, O., Kim, J. E., Won, C. H., Chang, S., Lee, M. W., Choi, J. H., Moon, K. C., Youn, C. S., Cho, S., & Lee, S. H. (2011). Exaggeration of wrinkles after botulinum toxin injection for forehead horizontal lines. Annals of dermatology23(2), 217–221. https://doi.org/10.5021/ad.2011.23.2.217
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