What is the Best Age to Have Botox Treatment?

On this page we look at Botox for different age groups, including:

• what problems it can help with at different stages of life
• the risks for each age group
• the recommended ages for starting and stopping Botox

You can quickly jump to your age by clicking on the links below:

• Botox in your 20s
• Botox in your 30s
• Botox in your 40s
• Botox in your 50s
• Botox in your 60s

At what age should you start using Botox?

You can start Botox as early as 18 years old but you probably don’t need to. At Health & Aesthetics we assess each patient individually and will recommend the best treatment for you. For some people, this may mean starting Botox treatment as soon as your early 20s, if you’re prone to wrinkles and want to prevent them from occurring.

Our average age of our patients at Health & Aesthetics is 35 years old.

At what age should you stop using Botox?

There is no upper age limit for people who want to have Botox. In fact, many women enjoy the refreshed look they can get from Botox and complementary treatments when they are in their 60s or older.

The right age to start Botox depends on your skin:

Your age	Why you might choose to have Botox
20s	You want to prevent wrinkles occurring in your early 30s
30s	You’ve started to notice a few wrinkles—particularly crow’s feet and brow lines—and you want to stop them from becoming deep-set
40s	You start to notice deeper lines around your eyes, particularly crow’s feet, forehead and frown lines and upper eyelids.
50s	Lines between your eyes particularly become more pronounced as changes due to the menopause make your skin drier and more prone to wrinkles.
60s	You want to look fresher, with rejuvenated skin, rather than wanting to appear 30 years younger.

Botox in your 20s—a preventative measure to stop wrinkles occurring later

As you’re likely to have few wrinkles at this age, you may be a good candidate for ‘baby Botox’, which uses smaller doses than the standard treatment. You can read more about what baby Botox is here.

Wrinkles in your 20s

Many women in their 20s will only experience wrinkles when they move their face—for example, when they:

• frown
• squint
• smile

These are known as dynamic wrinkles as they only appear when you move your facial muscles. So having Botox is your 20s is a measure to prevent wrinkles occurring in the future.

Sun damage and smoking are the main causes of premature aging. Women who smoke are at a particular risk of developing premature wrinkles as smoking:

• deprives the skin of oxygen
• dries out the surface of the skin
• reduces the amount of blood flowing to the skin, robbing it of oxygen and nutrients

The 25 to 34 age group has the highest percentage of smokers—nearly 20% in fact.

Consider Botox in your 20s if you:

• have:
  • experienced sun damage on your face
  • regularly sunbathed without protection
  • used a sunbed

as this can cause your skin to age prematurely

• smoke—this can also cause your skin to age prematurely
• are concerned about wrinkles later in life and want to prevent them now

Is there an age limit on Botox?

No. However, Botox should not be used for cosmetic reasons on people under the age of 18.

How Botox can help

Preventative Botox works by helping stop younger patients from developing deep wrinkles in the first place, so the wrinkles don’t become deep-set as you age.

Botox is designed to limit muscle movement in the areas of the face you use regularly, such as the forehead and between the eyebrows. As the muscles can’t contract, your skin can’t wrinkle as it would if the muscles had a full range of movement.

Is it safe to have Botox in your 20s?

There are risks of having Botox too young. In some cases, muscles that have been treated can be susceptible to atrophy (also known as muscle weakness) from lack of use. These under-used muscles can give the face less volume as they become smaller and weaker from lack of use. If your face has less volume, this can actually make you look older.

There’s no age limit for having Botox, but it should not be used for cosmetic reasons on people under the age of 18. There have been steps made to ban the use of cosmetic injectables for people under 18.

Prices for Botox at Health & Aesthetics start at £200

Questions to ask your aesthetics doctor

• What alternatives to Botox injections could I try?
• What specific lifestyle changes can I make to stop my skin ageing prematurely?
• Is ‘baby Botox’ a good option for me?

Botox in your 30s—treat early wrinkles before they start to set in

If you’re in your 30s, it’s likely you’ve already noticed your first lines and wrinkles. Most women won’t develop permanent deep lines and wrinkles until their late 30s so this may be a good time to consider Botox.

Wrinkles in your 30s

At this age, wrinkles tend to be visible even when you’re not making a facial expression—particularly around the brows and eyes.

Sunbathing, smoking and drinking alcohol can all cause premature wrinkles. However, one of the key causes of wrinkles in people in their 30s is stress. Stress has been proven to slow down the skin’s natural barrier—that is, its ability to heal itself. This barrier helps hold moisture in the skin, but by breaking down can cause the skin to age prematurely.

According to the American Fitness Professionals & Associates (AFPA): “Perpetual anger and distress can form permanently on the face in the form of fine lines and deep wrinkles. When the face expresses chronic sad or angry emotions, the constant scowling can turn into wrinkles formed by muscle memory”.

Consider Botox in your 30s if you:

• were a fan of sunbathing, late nights, drinking and smoking in your 20s
• have a stressful lifestyle—research shows that women aged between 35 and 44 suffer the most stress of any age group

How Botox can help

The main aim of having Botox in your 30s is to help stop muscles from habitually creating wrinkles. For example, every time you frown, the glabellar furrows (also known as ‘elevens’)—the vertical lines between your eyebrows—will wrinkle and become more deeply set.

Because Botox limits the movement in your muscles, you won’t be able to move them as much and your wrinkles won’t be able to deepen further.

Crow’s feet in your 30s

You’re most likely to start seeing crow’s feet around the corners of your eyes at this age. You may notice lines in this area first as the skin is thinner here and contains fewer oil-secreting glands, making the area more susceptible to wrinkles.

Treating crow’s feet with Botox is an effective way to soften wrinkles in this area. However, speak to your practitioner about what you want to achieve, as wrinkles around the eyes are a crucial part of a natural smile. Too much Botox in this area can mean your smile looks unbalanced or insincere.

An experienced practitioner will soften your crow’s feet rather than freeze them completely and give them that unnatural look.

Questions to ask your aesthetics doctor

• Which areas of the face would benefit most from Botox treatment?
• Is there a suitable alternative or complementary treatment to help lessen wrinkles?
• How often will I need to get the injections?

Botox in your 40s—treat wrinkles before they become deep-set

When you reach your 40s, you’re likely to have more defined wrinkles. This is because, as we age, it takes longer for skin cells to regenerate and our skin’s collagen and elastin start breaking down more quickly.

What’s the most popular age to have Botox?

According to one source nearly 60% of Botox users are aged between 40 and 54.

Wrinkles in your 40s

Many women choose to try Botox for the first time in their 40s as they start to notice wrinkles are becoming more deep-set—even without moving the facial muscles.

Natural ageing is one of the key causes of having wrinkles in your 40s. However, your lifestyle can accelerate the ageing process, with alcohol and stress making women this age more susceptible to wrinkles:

• Alcohol—women aged 45 and over are more than twice as likely to drink alcohol every day compared to people in their early 40s and younger. Alcohol dehydrates the skin, deprives it of vitamins and nutrients, and can permanently damage and kill cells.
• Stress—in your 40s you may have to deal with children, work and ageing parents, adding extra pressure that can take its toll on your skin.

Consider Botox in your 40s if you:

• drink alcohol regularly and have noticed your skin is dehydrated and more prone to wrinkles
• have a stressful lifestyle and want to look more refreshed and less tired

How Botox can help

At 40 anti-ageing creams and skincare routines are unlikely to have much of an impact on wrinkles. This is why many women choose to try Botox at this stage of their lives.

You may have started to see deeper lines in the following areas:

• Around your eyes, particularly crow’s feet
• Forehead lines
• Frown lines

Women who opt for Botox in their 40s tend to have it in these areas.

If you’ve never had Botox before, the treatment alone may not be enough to tackle lines and wrinkles at this age. As wrinkles are likely to be quite ingrained, you may find you need laser treatments or dermal fillers to achieve the results you want.

Questions to ask your aesthetics doctor

• If I’ve not had any treatment before, how can I avoid looking ‘overdone’?
• Would treatments such as chemical peels be a better option for me?
• Which areas would I need to have treated?

Botox in your 50s—soften deep-set wrinkles before they become too prominent

By 50 years old, many wrinkles are deep-set and the texture of your skin has changed significantly. You’re likely to start seeing age spots due to sun damage and notice your skin sagging as its collagen and elastin levels continue to drop with increasing age.

Wrinkles in your 50s

The menopause has a significant impact on the skin. As your oestrogen levels drop, it will be more difficult for your skin to retain moisture, causing it to dry out and wrinkle more easily.

Lower levels of oestrogen can:

• make your skin less elastic, which can cause wrinkles
• cause more age spots to form, especially on areas of the skin that have been regularly exposed to the sun
• swell the skin, making it more susceptible to damage from the sun and from smoking—both of which can cause wrinkles

Damage caused through sunbathing in particular can become much more prominent after the age of 50. According to one study, sun damage accounts for 80% of skin ageing and can cause wrinkles, a reduction in skin elasticity, yellowing and uneven pigmentation.

Regular exposure to the sun can result in photoageing, —a type of skin damage that stops the skin from repairing itself, giving it the tell-tale sun-baked, leathered look.

Consider Botox in your 50s if you:

• are soon to go through, are going through or have recently gone through the menopause
• have spent extended periods of time in the sun or on sunbeds, which can wrinkle the skin significantly and change its texture
• drink alcohol regularly—women aged between 45 and 64 drink the most units of alcohol each week, so are at the highest risk of it affecting their skin through dehydration and depleting levels of vitamins and minerals

How Botox can help

Botox is particularly effective at treating frown lines between the eyes in women in their 50s, but other areas of the face may need extra help. Botox can be combined with other treatments such as dermal fillers to lessen the appearance of stubborn wrinkles.

What other skin treatments can I have in my 50s?

Volume in the cheeks also continues to decline at a more noticeable rate in women in their 50s and may require treatment with dermal fillers.

Brown spots on the skin can be treated in a number of ways, including with skin peels and laser treatment.

Other areas of the body that have been exposed to the sun—such as the décolletage—also start to show signs of serious wrinkling. We can treat this kind of wrinkling with alternatives to Botox such as Ultherapy, which is the best option for the décolletage. Ultherapy uses a handheld ultrasound device to lift and tighten the skin and is a particularly good treatment for rejuvenating the lower face.

Questions to ask your aesthetics doctor

• How can I combat the ageing process on other areas of my body such as the hands?
• Can I treat areas such as my jowls?
• How can I ensure that I look natural and not like a 50-year-old who’s had Botox?

Botox in your 60s—soften lines and wrinkles for a subtle, fresher look

Many women in their 60s want to look ‘fresher’ and ‘less tired’ with non-surgical cosmetic treatments, rather than looking ‘overdone’ with more invasive cosmetic surgery.

Botox—often combined with other treatments at this age—offers the ideal way to improve what you already have rather than completely transforming how you look.

Wrinkles in your 60s

Even if you’ve looked after your skin your whole life, by the time you reach 60 the gradual breakdown of collagen (which starts in your 20s) means you’re likely to have wrinkles.

The extent of your wrinkles will depend on how well you’ve cared for your skin. If you’ve smoked, drank alcohol regularly or enjoyed sunbathing, you’re likely to have more wrinkles.

Consider Botox in your 60s if you:

• have spent a lot of time sunbathing or using sunbeds
• want to look refreshed and rejuvenated, rather than 30 years younger

How Botox can help

At this age, expectations can be the trickiest part of having Botox—if you’re in your 60s and want to look 30, that’s not going to be possible. Botox, and other procedures such as fillers, can help to smooth out wrinkles but the results will be subtle.

There’s no upper age limit for having Botox, so age alone shouldn’t stop you from undergoing the treatment. However, if you haven’t had any treatments done before, Botox won’t completely rejuvenate your face.

Botox doesn’t plump up the skin. So if you’re concerned about issues such as hollow cheeks or permanent wrinkles that aren’t just caused by facial movement, you may require further treatments such as dermal fillers or Laser Enhanced Skin Rejuvenation to achieve an overall fresher look.

Questions to ask your aesthetics doctor

• How long can I expect Botox treatment to last at this age?
• How dramatic will the results be?
• Does Botox hurt more on older patients?

Whatever your age, Botox offers natural-looking results to make you look refreshed and relaxed. If you would like to learn more about having our Botox treatments in Surrey, or discuss whether now is the right time, please get in touch with the Health & Aesthetics clinic on 01252 933133.

To find out more about looking after yourself once you have had Botox, read our Botox Aftercare FAQs here. You can find more information about baby Botox in Surrey by reading Your Guide to Baby Botox here.