Twenty-year-old women walk around with a changed face, looking less and less like themselves and more and more like online influencers. The phenomenon already has its own name – Instagram face, girls can order fillers online and inject themselves without being aware of the dangers and side effects.
Botox and other fillers have long been used not only by celebrities in their older years, but also by completely ordinary and even very young women who do not have wrinkles, but would like to correct problematic areas – too thin lips, sagging cheekbones, an imperfect nose.
False phenomena. The face of Instagram is a beauty standard based on the looks of influencers. On social networks, especially on Instagram and TikTok, they publish photos and videos that they have processed in various programs and on which they have applied filters. Additionally, many influencers use both cosmetic surgery like botox and dermal fillers, making it difficult to compare their looks to anyone else’s, with or without filters. They also use a lot of make-up, which the girls apply before taking photos or filming. So-called make-up tutorials have been popular on social networks for many years, which have become a real little science. They include tons of makeup that many influencers promote and sell.
Five years ago, The New Yorker Kim Kardashian labeled a patient zero as far as Instagram face goes. Her half-sister followed in her footsteps Kylie Jennershe started with fillers when she was seventeen. The Instagram face now shared by all the Kardashians is characterized by cat eyes, long eyelashes, a small nose, high cheekbones, full lips and a blank stare. Some argue that the moves are a mixture of different races and ethnicities. Since digital filters became popular, the popularity of plastic surgery, botox and fillers has also risen. Obviously, everyone would like to achieve a filtered version of themselves, but what they really achieve is mainly to look like everyone else who had the same idea. There are not a few of them.
Botox for youth. Botox is a neurotoxin that is used to correct facial expressions and smooth wrinkles on the face and even on the neck. It is usually injected into the forehead, creases near the eyes and between the eyebrows. Botox injections should be done every four to six months. It can also be used to lift the eyebrows and partly also the eyelids, as well as for »lip flip«which means that it is injected into the edge of the upper lip, which slightly turns it outwards and thus increases it.
Baby botox, or preventive botox, is a market niche that captures younger customers. It is essentially the same substance, but used in smaller quantities and applied less deeply under the skin. This gives a natural, but still more youthful appearance, and the facial muscles can be moved fairly normally. It can also be used on the lower part of the face, where normal amounts of Botox are not recommended. Preventive Botox should be suitable for people who do not yet have deep wrinkles or who want a natural look, as well as for those who want to prevent wrinkles. The ideal candidates for preventive Botox are between the ages of 25 and 30. Preventive Botox is supposed to prevent deeper wrinkles from forming. After using Botox, you should be more aware of your facial muscles and, even after the filler wears off, use them less. In addition, you should need less Botox over time because the muscles learn to move less prominently after long-term use. The effects of long-term use of Botox are supposed to last even after the injection is stopped – the muscles are not supposed to “make up” for all the years they were exposed to Botox.
On the other hand, regular use of Botox weakens the muscles. If we stop using it, they need time to recover and start working normally again. Long-term use may thin the skin and cause uneven pigmentation. Possible side effects of Botox include pain, swelling, bruising, headache, flu-like symptoms, droopy eyelids, uneven eyebrows and smile, drooling, watery or dry eyes, and infections. Very rarely, Botox can enter the wrong parts of the body and cause muscle weakness, problems with vision, speech, breathing or swallowing, an allergic reaction, and loss of bladder control.
Distorted self-image. Dermal fillers are used to add volume to sagging skin, increase facial symmetry, increase lips and cheekbones, optically reshape the nose, and smooth wrinkles. They do not affect muscle function like Botox. The most popular filler is hyaluronic acid, which is produced by the body itself and can even be used on the décolleté and the back of the hands. The body breaks it down on its own, so it only works for six to twelve months. Another filler that the body itself produces is calcium hydroxyapatite, which replaces the volume of the skin and stimulates the formation of collagen and lasts for up to a year. Polylactic acid and caprolactone also stimulate collagen renewal. The lost tension of the skin on the face can also be replaced with our own fat, which the specialist takes from our hips and stomach and then injects into the face and décolletage; the effects last for years. Permanent fillers such as silicone and polyacrylate are practically no longer used, as temporary fillers are much safer.
Faye Wintersa former contestant on the British reality show Love Island, sported huge lips during filming. Later, when she had her fillers removed, she claimed she didn’t even realize how big they were – as if she hadn’t seen her true reflection in the mirror. Because her skin has stretched so much, she now has to have a bit of filler all the time to keep her lips looking normal. Also an actress Courtney Cox she claims that she herself did not feel strange for a long time with a lot of filler. Only after criticism did she become aware of her unnatural appearance and had it removed. Women are not the only ones who go too far with beauty procedures; because of them, the actor is on the wallpaper Zac Efronwho no longer looks like himself, as well as his colleague Ryan Goslingwhose face is getting wider due to fillers.
Also, are temporary fillings essentially permanent? In recent years, several doctors have found that the fillers in their patients did not break down after several years, but that their quantity simply decreased or they spilled over to other parts of the face. If the filler is simply shifted, and a person continues to add it regularly, it can lead to a bloated, unnatural face, such as can be seen on some celebrities, for example, on the barely 27-year-old Kylie Jenner.
Hyaluronic acid can be broken down by injecting an enzyme that takes care of it. In some cases it works better, in others worse, and other types of fillers cannot be broken down at all. Even with the help of an enzyme, some people cannot achieve the look they had before fillers – for example, the lips look different, they are more wrinkled. There are several groups on Facebook where frustrated users report side effects of fillers and Botox, such as pain, redness, itching, rashes, bruising, and swelling. Sometimes there are new depressions or bumps in the skin, drooping or excessively raised eyebrows and the like. The most serious risk associated with fillers is accidental injection into a blood vessel, which can cause skin necrosis (death of tissue), stroke or blindness. This April, the media wrote about a Slovenian young woman who almost went blind in one eye because of a dermal filler she bought online and injected herself.
Instead of running from injections, we pay for them. The argument of some who use Botox and fillers is that it is no longer natural anyway. Even hair dye and painted nails are not natural. It’s hard to argue with that, even though it’s stuff that’s been in fashion for so long that we’ve normalized it. Hair dyes, nail polishes and make-up are taken as something with which we express ourselves, change our appearance for a certain time or events. Our facial expressions are still ours. But still – women used to not even dye their gray hair, let alone change the color of their natural hair to platinum blonde or pink. Today, this is commonplace and few have any qualms about it. But frozen faces and oversized lips confuse many people – for now.
We should also not forget the risk that these interventions bring. This is much less if we make sure we are with an expert: a licensed medical specialist. However, bodies are different and sometimes, despite the expertise of the practitioner and the clinic, problems arise or the person is simply not satisfied with the results. Imagine letting someone inject something in your face for hundreds of euros, and then end up liking yourself even less than before or even developing new health problems. However, Botox and fillers are generally perceived as safe and reliable; as an intervention that takes less time than an afternoon visit to the hairdresser. Who knows, maybe in a few years or decades they will be what hair dyes are today: something that anyone, even young girls, can use to change their appearance without prejudice.
It is teenage girls who are most quickly networked by the appearance of influencers and celebrities. Still, it’s hard to pin the blame solely on famous women. After all, they too go for cosmetic surgeries and injections, put on makeup beyond recognition and edit their photos because they live in a world that equates the value of women with their beauty, in which there is no room for visible aging, and apparently no more for a natural appearance. Let’s hope this trend changes or we’ll soon look like filtered clones.
Read more interesting content in the new edition of Jana magazine.
Source: svet24.si
