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Botox Basics
Botox relaxes the muscles that crease your skin when you make an expression. It doesn't fill anything and it doesn't tighten skin. It quiets a muscle for a few months and then wears off, and the lines that muscle was drawing soften while it's quiet.
That's most of the theory. The useful part starts in front of a mirror, and I'd do it before booking anything.
Three faces to pull first
Stand near a window if you can. Bathroom lighting flatters or punishes more or less at random.
Lift your eyebrows as high as they'll go. Those horizontal lines across the forehead are the ones people ask about most. Now let go and look again. If they disappear, they're movement lines. If they're still faintly there, part of the job belongs to the skin itself. Either way, notice how far your brows travel, because that lift is work the forehead muscle is doing for you.
Frown hard. The vertical lines between the brows come from a separate group of muscles, and those pull the brows down. Injectors often treat that spot together with the forehead, for reasons the forehead page goes into.
Squint, or grin until your eyes crinkle. The fan at the outer corners is crow's feet. The skin there is thin, and small doses go a long way.
Take a phone photo of each one. In a consultation they'll say more than any description you manage from the chair.
Which page goes with which face
- Botox for forehead lines goes with the raised-brow photo. It covers why the forehead is rarely treated on its own and how low-set brows change the plan.
- Botox for crow's feet goes with the squint. Restraint with the dose, and what can happen to your smile when there isn't any.
- How long Botox takes to work goes with all three, since the timing is much the same everywhere: little for the first few days, most of the change inside the first week, settled at around two weeks.
Getting ready for the appointment
Bring the photos, a list of what you take, supplements included, and rough dates for any injections you've had before. Write it up somewhere you won't be interrupted. The West New York Free Public Library is good for that, and so is the campus at Hudson County Community College if you study there.
To check that a local practice is a registered business, the Town of West New York site is a quick first stop. It won't tell you who injects well. Nothing online will. That comes out when you're sitting across from someone and watching how carefully they look at your face moving.
Once you've read them
Start with the timing page even if you think you already know the answer. Most disappointment with Botox comes from judging it on day four. After that, read the page for the area you actually care about and take its questions with you.
For a Hoboken example to set beside the timing page, one practice lays out its own Botox treatment in plain terms at myethosspa.com/services/botox/hoboken-nj/.