You hate looking tired? That's not a great reason to get cosmetic work done...
Don't fall into this common trap
I’ve seen this time after time in real life, but it’s also a dramatic trope, particularly - and frustratingly - in movies and TV shows that have primarily female audiences.
Woman looks in the mirror, grimaces, then complains (sometimes into thin air) that she looks like shit because she’s tired.
And it can be pretty tempting to seek cosmetic work to remedy this.
However, any benefits are going to be short-lived unless you take steps to address the underlying root causes of your tiredness. Which human beings aren’t often encouraged to do.
Enough people have written about the cult of busyness that I don’t feel the need to add to the conversation, but nowadays women ‘having it all’ often looks like ‘women doing the work of 4 people and wondering how the fuck they’re going to get through the next 24 hours without committing a murder’.
It may be that, some days, you look in the mirror and the lines on your face make you want to scream. You may not be able to see any way out or any time that you can have of your own to just feel more like yourself again.
If you're in that situation and Botox is the one thing that's going to keep you sane and stop you from crying every time you look in the mirror, then by all means, my darling, go and get Botox.
But you should be considering that to be a stopgap, rather than finding yourself going back in four months for a top-up and another and another and another.
There’s nothing at all wrong with getting Botox on a repeat basis (I’ve been doing it since 2010 and have no plans to stop), but - as ever - I advocate for conscious work and if the only reason you’re getting Botox is to look less tired, you’re unlikely to do anything to make yourself feel less tired.
My main aim for this site is to support women and enable them to smile at their reflections in the mirror. Still, your best chance of smiling at yourself in the mirror is if you're already smiling before you look in the mirror. If everything feels like drudgery, you're going to find that much much harder.
Some ways that your life can reflect on your face
Not eating properly - this will give you a dull complexion, can give you spots and - if you’re eating too much salt, especially in food you haven’t made yourself - can give you puffy eyes
Not sleeping properly - this can drain your face of life, cause dark under-eye circles and put you in a bad mood that will not be conducive to mirror-smiling. If you’re prone to eczema/psoriasis/skin inflammation conditions, lack of sleep can also exacerbate these by affecting the integrity of your skin barrier.
Stress/anxiety - stress can trigger excess sweat and oil production in the skin. You may get a rash or even hives as stress often creates histamine in the body. And… yes, our friend skin inflammation is likely to occur.
Not finding time for yourself - this can be as straightforward as: if you’re not finding time to wash your face once a day, you skin is going to look like crap. And if you’re not washing your face, your hair is probably being neglected. Unwashed hair can also lead to oilier skin, acne and (yet again) skin inflammation.
And that’s before we get into the havoc that menopause/peri-menopause may also be wreaking.
Again, if Botox or Profhilo are going to get you through a short-term crisis of confidence, do what you need to do to stay sane. But if you perpetually feel like crap and that’s making you feel as though you look like crap, please take the time to understand and identify the root cause of your tiredness and try to address it rather than using injectables to mask what are probably some Very Real life issues.
It is much easier to get someone to shoot stuff into your face1 than it is to have a difficult conversation with your partner/subconscious/relative/boss/whoever, but - for your long term sanity - if your most common complaint when you look in the mirror is “God, I look so tired”, please try to address the root cause (life angst, in whatever shape it’s taking") rather than the symptom (crappy skin).
Sermon over.
For those who are thinking of taking Botox the leap, read this first
In all contexts.