| | Lucy’s answer |
| | This is a question I can answer with considerable authority, as I’ll explain in a |
| | moment. |
| | But first: is Botox a good investment? In theory I don’t see why it shouldn’t be. |
| | There has been quite a bit of research done to show that people who look good |
5 | | do better, mainly because they are more confident. If Botox made you more |
| | confident, then you might well land new business as a result. |
| | However, this is an area where it is hard to get good advice. If you ask |
| | people, especially men, whether you should inject nasty things into your face, |
| | they will all say no (which is just as well as you wouldn’t want them to say yes, |
10 | | would you?). Most women say no too, even the ones who secretly sneak off to |
| | dates with doctors with syringes themselves. People lie about their Botox even |
| | more than they lie about how much they drink. |
| | I only know a small handful of women who openly admit to having had this |
| | done. It would be nice if I could say that they all looked grotesque, but alas they |
15 | | all look annoyingly good. Thinking about this, I used to feel the same as you – |
| | that if everyone else was moving the goal posts, perhaps I should too. |
| | [id:96310] , a few months ago, I went with | |
| | a friend to a doctor who shone a bright |
| | white light in my face and carefully |
20 | | explained how my cheeks were |
| | collapsing and how the lines were |
| | deepening. Even parts of my face that |
| | I hadn’t noticed were bad turned out to |
| | be so. “You’ve got a very low brow,” she |
25 | | said disapprovingly. |
| | The urgent work would require three |
| | syringes of “filler” at about £300 ($471) each, all lasting only nine months, with a |
| | bit of Botox around the edges. The bare minimum would cost about £1,500 a |
| | year. |
30 | | I looked at her peculiarly smooth, impassive face, and I considered my |
| | options: looking old or looking weird. Expressed thus the answer was easy: |
| | looking old isn’t so bad. And it’s much cheaper. |
| | In return for listening to just how clapped-out I am, I paid a fee of £90. It was |
| | the best investment I have ever made, and I strongly recommend you do the |
35 | | same. This wretched doctor has put the fight back in me. Never have I felt |
| | happier – defiant even – about my deep frown lines and collapsed cheeks. |
| | I chose them. |
| | |
| | ft.com, 2011 |