To Botox or Nox (Not)
African American Women & Botox
As an African American Women over forty, I find certain lifestyles pertaining to beauty; particularly surgery alterations a challenge. When I was growing up in the seventies and eighties; it was hugely frown upon to altar any parts of our human being for any situation outside of a handicap. It wasn’t natural for any women to have any parts of her body; including her face, increased, decreased or altered in any matter. As a matter of fact, I can recall rich Hollywood stars having the procedure (very obvious based on images) done while avoiding admitting having it. During these times, it wasn’t popular to alter our God given beauty and it’s safe to assume, many hid the process to avoid the backlash of being seen as vain, conceited or shallow in thinking.
Fast forward to 2018 in which the realistic perspective for the beauty industry and mindset has totally switched and changed. We currently live in a culture of beauty on steroids in which each person owns who they are and do not base every decision on society trends and isolated expectations. The beauty industry and its counter parts, no longer fit a person into a box rather than providing different tools, resources and product information for each individual to decide for them. Today we get the opportunity to learn from a wide range of different people considering the different social outlets to learn from. I was having a conversation with a friend who is a manager in a call center; he told me it’s an everyday lifestyle for his employees to take a leave of absence in the case of plastic surgery or altering procedures. He explained, it isn’t an expensive procedure either and many people are choosing to have plastic surgeries or liposuction as an alternative to fitness or diet weight loss. Although, I was born of another generation and mindset, I too begin recognizing the benefit to different forms of alterations and ways in which this mindset can help me develop into my better older self.
Even though I am personally not a big fan of any painful procedure, I was curious about Botox and its effectiveness on African American women. If I’m being honest, I am afraid of any procedure that could possibly make aging worse in the near future; at least that’s what I told myself about Botox. Two years ago I had a consultation with Dr. Shari Hicks-Graham and we discussed the option for Botox, how it works, pricing and the simplicity of the procedure; I became frightened and immediately made a decision to not have the procedure. Two years later, I decided to go for it after speaking with several black women who had the process and confirmed the simplicity and the cost was worth the dosage of liquid shot in between my eyes. I had two deep lines in between my eyes (frown line) so I only needed 15g of Botox that included four shots above my brow line. Now keep in mind, I don’t like pain but this procedure with Dr. Shari Hicks-Graham was so easy, simple and very cost effective. The shots were deep but Hicks-Graham has a quick draw and made the procedure simple and pain free.
I didn’t understand completely what results I would obtain from having Botox but after two weeks of the procedure, I do see the results have soften my face, lessen the deepness of the lines on my frown line while also adding volume around my eyes that made my eyes appear larger. At this time, considering it’s only been two weeks, I am a fan of Botox BUT I have decided, to complete the procedure only once a year outside of the recommended timeframe of twice a year. I will keep you posted on my progress and thank you for tuning in. If you want to learn more about Botox and how it can work for you, please feel free to schedule an appointment with Dr. Shari Hicks-Graham at 614-224-4566.
Image: This is the whole process in a nut shell. As you can see, she gave me four shots across my eyebrow……..you can see the little bumps.