Women, Vanity and Cosmetic Enhancements

Botox, Dermal Fillers, Chemical Peels Etc

Women are vain creatures. It is a stereotype that some women may oppose vehemently, but a statement that hold true for many people in general. I am one such woman. I do not have perfect flawless skin, which I so ardently wish for.



As soon as I reached that age when looks began to play an important part of my social life (that is, the teenage years), I looked for solutions to imperfection in my facial skin. I endured numerous painful sessions at spas, where my facial skin was picked clean of impurities (acne). I endured it all, believing in the words of those inflicting the pain - that my face would soon clear up. But this only led to injuries (read scars) in my skin.

Many years later, after the acne cleared up, with multiple vists to this and that dermatologists, age began pulling my facial skin down leading to the dreaded nasolabial line (unwanted "parentheses" on the face).

A small poll amongst my friends have shown that the perception of what constitutes as perfection is really dependent on one's self. Maybe even related to one's self-esteem.

For instance, one friend insisted she needed further cosmetic procedures done to even out her skin tone, and flatten the scar damage from acne flare-ups years ago. But to the rest of us, she looked fine.

But I can understand why she would feel the need to continue the procedures, having been through years of battle with acne myself. It is partly healing (emotionally) to undergo procedures because it keeps the hope alive that at the end of it, you come out looking better. So the more procedures, the more better you end up looking. So even if the visible improvements are small, the emotional improvements are huge!

The group of us are not yet into Botox - I think we are not in the right age group yet. But we have tried TCA chemical peels, microdermabrasion, and now....

Dermal Fillers is the next new cosmetic enhancement we would like to try.

This is what I found out about dermal fillers:

"When we age, we lose firmess (through fat loss) in our skin; this leads us to have a droopy effect. In the face, we get those "parentheses" around the naso-labial area. The skin loses stucture and volume, forming lines and wrinkles.

Juverderm corrects this by injecting materials called "demal fillers" into the skin, to achieve a temporary effect on smoothness. The dermal filler used in Juvederm is called hyaluronic acid (HA).

HA is a natural complex sugar found in all living cells, and one of the major components of the skin tissue. HA retains water and hydrates the skin to increase volume and density.

Since Juvederm uses a naturally occuuring substance that is already present in the skin, this is a safe procedure that has no advserse long-term effects. The benefits from the procedure though are temporary, lasting anywhere from 6 months to a year".

Sounds good to me. Who's up first, gals?