You may be surprised to learn that there is no age restriction on non-surgical cosmetic procedures. The Royal Society for Public Health has recently suggested that there should be stricter age restrictions on cosmetic injectables. A campaign from SaveFaceUK has also been pushing for tighter restrictions with Conservative MP Laura Trott trying to get a new law passed. The suggestion is that under 18s should be banned from accessing such procedures, a suggestion that was backed by the majority of the public (87%). Spokesperson Duncan Stephenson commented, “a desire to resort to quick fixes among the selfie generation has led to a massive increase in demand for non-surgical cosmetic procedures, especially lip fillers”.
At Hello Me, we feel strongly about ethical facial aesthetics and would like to see a law that bans under 21s from accessing this kind of care. Young people in the selfie generation feel a lot of pressure today to look a certain way, and making cosmetics procedures readily available and accessible to them could lead them to make irreversible decisions they may later regret. We have age restrictions to protect vulnerable young people with alcohol and cigarettes, why not lip fillers and Botox?!
Of course, there is the issue that many young girls today look a lot older than they are and can deceive practitioners easily. However, this can be avoided by making sure that part of the consultation process involves showing some kind of identification.
In some cases, young people are seeking treatment for wrinkles that don’t exist and paying money for a service that is not needed. That in itself is a fraudulent practice, providing a service that is in no way needed, and should be discouraged as a waste of money and bad practice.
Treatment for facial aesthetics should be entered into after careful consideration, and at an age when you know your face, and its glorious laughter lines and creases and the life it’s lived so far. For this reason, I chose to only treat those people of a certain age who are looking for subtle rejuvenation to bring back a bit of their younger self. Your chosen practitioner should guide you through the process, helping you understand what is and isn’t possible and give you the opportunity to make an informed decision about whether to go ahead with treatment. A patient should never feel pressured into anything. Or lured with pictures of celebrities or reality stars suggesting they will finish their treatment looking like them. This kind of practice gives facial aesthetics a bad name and is one we’re standing up to at Hello Me to do things differently.
We’ve started a petition to introduce a minimum age for facial aesthetics, please sign and share here: Face the Revolution.
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