Anti-Wrinkle Injections in Putney

Expression lines are the record of everything your face does all day. Frowning at a screen, squinting into the sun, raising your brows to listen. Over years the skin above those muscles stops springing back, and the line stays put when your face is at rest.

Anti-wrinkle injections relax the specific muscles creating that pull, so the skin above them settles and smooths. Done well, nothing about you looks altered. You look like you slept properly and stopped worrying.

How Natalja approaches it

Before anything is drawn up, you will be asked to frown, lift your brows, squint and smile, several times. That is not a formality. Two people with identical lines can have completely different muscle patterns underneath, and treating them the same way is exactly how people end up looking frozen or heavy in the brow.

Natalja is an independent nurse prescriber with over a decade in medical aesthetics, and a trainer for Cosmetic Courses, where she teaches injecting technique to doctors, dentists, surgeons and nurses. Her rule for her own clients is the one she teaches: start conservative, review at two weeks, add if it is genuinely needed. Under-treating is fixable in a fortnight. Over-treating means waiting three months.

Areas we treat

The upper face is the classic starting point, and most people begin with one to three areas.

• Frown lines. The vertical creases between the brows that make you look cross or tired when you are neither.
• Forehead lines. The horizontal lines across the brow. Treated with care, because taking too much movement here drops the brow.
• Crow's feet. The fan of lines at the outer eye. Softened, not erased, so your smile still reaches your eyes.
• Brow lift. A few units placed to lift the tail of the brow and open the eye area.
• Bunny lines. The diagonal creases across the bridge of the nose when you scrunch or laugh.
• Lip flip, gummy smile, marionette pull and puckered chin. Small, precise doses around the mouth, from £90.

What the appointment is like

Your first visit includes a full consultation. Medical history, what is bothering you, what you want to keep, and an honest conversation about whether injections are even the right answer. Sometimes they are not, and you will be told so.

The injections themselves take about ten minutes. The needle is very fine and most people describe it as a quick scratch. There is no anaesthetic needed and no recovery. You can go back to work, though you should avoid the gym, lying flat, facials and alcohol for the rest of the day.

You will be invited back at two weeks so the result can be checked while it is still adjustable. That review is included.

Is it right for you

This treatment suits you if your lines are dynamic, meaning they appear when you move and soften when your face is still. If a line is etched in at rest, injections will improve it but a skin treatment or a small amount of filler may be needed alongside.

• You are 21 or over and in good general health, which is our minimum treating age
• You are not pregnant or breastfeeding
• You do not have a neuromuscular condition affecting muscle function
• You want your face to still move, just less sharply

Mapping before anything is injected

Every treatment starts with the muscles being mapped while you frown, smile and raise your brows. Two people with identical lines at rest can need completely different placement, because the pattern of pull underneath is different.

That mapping is why the dose can be kept conservative. Placed accurately, less product does more, and what is left behind is movement that looks like yours rather than a forehead that has stopped working.