With actress Carey Mulligan being advised to have Botox at just 25 and model Alexandra Escat, also 25, admitting to pre-dinner boosters, it seems that this wrinkle-busting treatment is no longer the preserve of the more mature woman. So what is the right age to start Botox?
Wrinkle-proofing is big business and, it would seem, recession proof. Belts may continue to tighten, but demand for Botox (otherwise known as botulin toxin, a derivative of the potentially deadly bacterium Clostridium botulinum) and other noninvasive procedures has risen by 219 per cent since 2005 – and about a million Brits have tried it.
Now you can book a Botox appointment in your lunch hour, and even your local hairdresser could administer the injections if they’ve been on the right course.
The new trend seems to be to start treatments as young as possible. Take 18-year-old pop star Charice Pempengco, who is huge in the US – she made headlines when she admitted that she’d booked herself in for Botox after feeling the pressure to ‘lsquo;look fresh’ for her debut appearance on hit TV show Glee. Then The Hills’ Heidi Montag turned to the face-freezing needle at just 23 (among numerous other procedures). And it’s not just in La-La Land: young British stars such as Keira Knightley and Cheryl Cole are also rumoured to be fans. The theory is that if you freeze your frown muscles early on, you won’t develop creases in later life.
