Can cosmetic treatments really make you look younger? BRIAN O'CONNELL, tries botox injections to see if they are worth the money, time and discomfort
ONE NIGHT when I was in my late teens, an older couple sat beside me in my local bar.
Our conversation moved to ageing and I asked the man what age did he see when he looked in the mirror?
He told me he saw a 32-year-old version of himself – about 15 years short of his real age.
When I expressed surprise, he added, “What guy really looks in the mirror for lines on their face?”
I was reminded of his words recently when I found myself in the consulting rooms of The Hospital Group.
Hanging from the walls were pictures of naturally beautiful faces, while copies of Imagemagazine adorned the coffee tables. Cosmetic surgeon Dr Mark Hamilton put a good mirror close up in front of my face and asked me what I saw.
First thing I saw was not on my face at all, but in my hair. On my temples, there were a few more grey hairs than usual – quick nurse, grab the Grecian 2000.
Dr Hamilton asked me to smile and then pointed out “crows’ feet” around my eyes, saying: “I can make a subtle improvement there if you like. One that people will notice but won’t be able to put their finger on.”
This is one of several cosmetic clinics operating in Ireland who say they have noticed an increase in male customers in recent years.
Men are opting for a range of procedures from liposuction to collagen fillers, with the clinic estimating that one in five of all customers are now male.
“Guys want subtlety,” says Dr Hamilton, “and by and large they don’t want anyone knowing they have had something done. This is the hidden world of men’s beauty, and actually men are far more difficult to treat than women.”
So, moment of truth – did I want to experience a procedure hundreds of Irish men are choosing? Would I allow Dr Hamilton inject botox around my eyes? I have to say I had huge reservations about taking the step from research to actually going through with a procedure.
I don’t feel any real need to change my appearance, albeit subtly, although on the other hand, I find this whole secret world of male cosmetics fascinating. The bottom line was that I didn’t want to look afterwards as if David Gest was my homeboy.
“Tell you what,” said Dr Hamilton, “I can soften those crinkles with a little botox. There will be no change in feeling, just that after a few days when you smile again it won’t crinkle and it will stay that way for about six months.”
So I agreed to four light injections around my eyes, where laugh lines were most prominent. I sat back on what resembled a dentist’s chair and Dr Hamilton made four marks on each side with a black marker. Then came the needle. I lay back and tried not to think about Pete Burns.
Like an annoying wasp, Dr Hamilton made several quick short injections into my skin, pushing through small amounts of botox. It was all over in 60 seconds, and aside from a little redness, there was sparse evidence of the procedure on my skin afterwards. I immediately grabbed the mirror.
“Every man does that,” Dr Hamilton said. “You can walk down the street and nobody will know. It’s why it has become a lunchtime procedure. Essentially, what we have done is to freeze the muscles and delay the ageing process. Nothing will happen straight away, but you’ll notice a little difference in a few days.”
Dr Hamilton puts the rise in men attending for procedures partly down to the fact that some males are getting married later in life, perhaps in their 30s and 40s, and the need to look youthful for longer is becoming more relevant.
The procedure I chose costs €295 and is proving one of the most popular with men aged 30 and upwards, according to the clinic.
Leaving the surgery, one of the main effects of having the botox injections was that I felt far more self-conscious than usual.
Also I began to notice people’s faces. Really notice their faces for the first time. I picked out similar thirtysomethings at traffic lights and scanned the areas around their eyes for lines, or analysed their brows for frowns.
Looking in the mirror later that day, I couldn’t really notice any difference, but over several days, the area around my eyes did look, well, fresher.
People I mentioned it to in conversation were fascinated and inquisitive (females) or bemused, bewildered and somewhat curious (males).
Part of me felt inherently disloyal to my natural self, while another part of me couldn’t give a damn and was fine with the refreshed look.
And I guess that’s the thing inside many of us that drives the desire for cosmetic surgery – the tension between being comfortable in our own skin and wanting someone else’s when we face ourselves in the mirror.
