Saving face

“If Botox sponsors Fab Over Fifty, I want nothing to do with it,” a California woman told me. She’s against anything unnatural.  “Hmm,” I thought, “I see nothing wrong with ‘cosmetic facial injectables’” (a phrase used by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.) She was emphatic, so I didn’t plan to debate.

Over 10 million women every year swear by these non- and minimally-invasive cosmetic procedures and the number keeps climbing.  They’re not cheap (think $2,500 a visit) and they should  be repeated about every six months. But over 75 percent of women 35 to 69 say they’d have the procedures to make them “look better,” according to a 2005 Harris Interactive survey for the ASPS.

Personally, I put these injections in the same category as capping teeth, dying hair and jumping around in aerobics classes. If we look better and even feel better as a result, I say, “Go for it.” You might prefer gray hair and slow walks. And you think your laugh lines are pretty cute. We can be Fab Over Fifty, whatever we decide.

On average, women 35 to 69 would prefer to look 13 years younger than their actual age, according to the Harris survey. That’s just about right as far as I’m concerned. When someone tells me I look fifty, I’m tickled pink.  Why not? Does it make me vain if I’d rather not look my age?

Just enough

More than a tad too much

Of course, there’s a big difference between wanting a natural looking, refreshed appearance, and trying to defy your age and look two decades younger. That’s not going to happen. One too many injections or skin that’s pulled back just a tad more than it should be will make you look perfect one day a year…Halloween.

Just a minute, I have to answer the door.