Have under-30s ‘lost the plot’ when it comes to Botox?

A leading cosmetic doctor has claimed that young people have “lost the plot” when it comes to non-surgical beauty treatments such as Botox and dermal fillers.

Speaking to The Guardian, Dr Michael Prager, who has dubbed himself “the king of Botox”, said that while older patients generally sought more discreet changes to their appearance, a “visibly enhanced” look had become the trend among the under-30s, adding that young people viewed physical enhancements as a “status symbol”.

“Generally, anybody under 30 has basically lost the plot,” Prager told the newspaper. “They haven’t spent enough time in the playground and they grew up with thumbs in a crooked position in front of a screen and now that’s their life.”

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‘Unregulated practitioners’

The non-surgical treatment industry has undergone “rapid growth” according to the all-party parliamentary group on beauty, aesthetics and well-being last year. Save Face, a campaigning group and national register of accredited practitioners offering non-surgical cosmetic treatments, estimated that some 900,000 Botox injections are carried out each year. And while the majority of patients who undergo cosmetic procedures are aged between 35 and 60, according to The British College of Aesthetic Medicine (BCAM), some 8% of patients were aged 18 to 24.

Speaking to The Guardian, Dr Darren McKeown, a BCAM board member, said he was concerned that the increasing number of cosmetic treatments among young people are “largely taking place in unregulated beauty salons by unqualified practitioners”.

It was concern about unregulated practitioners, in part, that prompted the government to introduce new licence requirements that make it illegal for treatments to be administered without a licence, and to ban Botox for those under 18. Before the ban, an estimated 41,000 Botox procedures a year were carried out on under-18s, according to data from the Department of Health, while some 29,300 under-18s underwent dermal filler procedures in 2017.

‘Self-esteem crisis’

It’s all too easy to “point fingers at the Kardashians or ITV’s Love Island for pushing unattainable beauty ideals onto our screens”, said Ellie Muir in The Independent. But young people are in a “self-esteem crisis” that began “raging ever since we opened our first Facebook accounts and began using photo editors like Facetune”, she wrote. And while the law may now protect those under 18, for those aged 18 and above there is little support “to tackle any deeper issues” that may be at work.

But while the “influence [of] social media” may play some part in young people seeking out cosmetic treatments, said Marc Pacifico, president of British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS), who spoke to i news, there is also “much less judgement in the under-30s about undergoing treatments”. “Perhaps the under-30s, both men and women, take more care of their appearance,” Pacifico added.

And while some people are “being overly injected and proud of it”, Prager told The Guardian, so are many of the practitioners holding the needle, who he said have “injected themselves to a point where in the old world they would have been considered nuts”.

Overall, said Prager, Botox can be a “fantastic medical useful treatment” for those looking to make a few tweaks to their appearance. But he warned: “You have to be careful who sits at the other end of the needle.”