Fashion on the Hill: Angel skin, one flight up

Mickey opts for Botox, not bangs, to freeze out forehead furrows; picture courtesy Michael Anthony Salon

I looked on in wide-eyed wonderment — a less damaging alternative  to my procerus muscle than creasing my brow in constant befuddlement — while at the Botox or Bangs event at Mickey Bolek’s Michael Anthony Salon across from Eastern Market on C Street SE.

The  event drew both hotties and hippies, sometimes in the same body, to receive Botox treatment from Dr. Wanda Minnis-Dyson, who owns  the Change for Life Wellness and Aesthetics Center around the corner on Pennsylvania Avenue SE. Many, like me, are clients of the cheeky and gifted handler of tresses, Mickey B.  I however, opted to observe with my brow furrowed, taking it all in, rather than to undergo a treatment “at this time,” as I stated.

In came the middle-aged women, after-hours:  the teacher, the librarian, two pairs of sisters and some “Botox pros,” while salon staff cheering them on. Botox — the botulism toxin that paralyzes the muscle where applied — was approved in 2002 for use on frown lines, or glabellar lines, in people age 65 and younger.

While nibbling shrimp and cocktail sauce,  olives, and hummus dip and sipping Shiraz and other wines, the female guests (and one man, Mickey’s figure skating instructor, the dashing Alexei.  Alexei is taking a Botox sabbatical so his face can start from scratch for a future Internet series he is creating with his wife called Self-Preservation (which covers preserving one’s youthful look though hyaluronic acid filler, Botox, and other techniques), discussed their experience with Botox and fillers, and what they hoped to get out of the evening.

A woman who called herself “Louise” went behind the white panel screen first, getting 46 units of Botox at the special rate of $9 for the first 20 units, and $18 thereafter, making the total cost that night $558 for her brow. Dyson said that most women average between 25 and 35 units per treatment, and men upwards of 50.  Longer muscles in Louise’s case, and in the case of another woman there that night, upped the doses into the 40s.  Minnis-Dyson said she had just treated a male client with 82 units earlier that evening in her office. The night was all about brows and furrows, not crow’s feet or cheek plumping. Botox treatments last about 3- 6 months, although Minnis-Dyson’s assistant is still cruising on the injections she had two years ago at the age of 34.  Louise, 54, said she was in the market for a new Botox provider, having been unimpressed by results after three treatments  from another provider her sister suspects of watering down the Botox.

A peppy and dynamic high school science teacher came in to get her treatment (she told Minnis-Dyson the maximum she was willing to pay and got 28 units), because she “doesn’t want to  look like a mad school teacher.” (She  doesn’t!) Still, she gets these treatments every three to four months for a brow furrow she says is genetic — and has been passed on to her young adult daughter.

The librarian, who, like most there, was very vague about her identity although she does not live on the Hill, spoke frankly about her Botox use.

“When I was young and beautiful, I thought it was so vain (to get such treatments), and I said I would  never do that.”  “And now, here I am.” The woman, not yet 60, looked wonderful and had satin skin, but ended up getting 41 units because of the “height of her muscle,” according to Dyson. The librarian said she wanted friends to think she had been on a nice vacation, not that she had run out to get Botox. Her sister booked an appointment for later, after a consultation.

Minnis-Dyson, 55,  said she had notions about cosmetic procedures as a practicing internist 10 years ago that have now “dissipated.”  She trained in Baltimore with a doctor there for administering Botox for cosmetic purposes and found she had a “gift and talent for it — and a love for it.” Now, she said, friends tell her she looks better than her husband, even though she is eight years his senior, and has brought friends, daughters and family members and co-workers the very rewarding experience of Botox and other cosmetic procedures (like fillers) used to combat the effects of age, gravity and loss of estrogen. Though Minnis-Dyson does administer Botox to women in their early 20s through on up.

It has been an “unexpected pleasure,” she said. Minnis-Dyson does cheek augmentations rather than using filler for smile lines, as she finds it lifts the face. By the way, there are chunky and nonchunky, or smooth-as smooth-peanut butter types of fillers from companies like Juvederm, depending on what part of your face you need filled. Cosmetic procedures to the face also may  involve peanut butter metaphors.

But women on the Hill with whom I have spoken have quite openly acknowledged their Botox use, seem content with it and look at me as if I am clearly next in line.  Some of these women do it so they won’t keep frowning at their kids, some to fit in with a younger office colleagues. And they look great, and certainly are as animated as ever when discussing  subjects that make them angry or upset. Some may choose to forgo this and stamp out, in semi-annual sessions, all traces of facial cues, but this is not generally found among the Hill denizens we know and love.

And of course, there is Mickey, who got 50 units the other night, and feels great. He started getting Botox last fall and held the first Botox and wine party at his salon last November with Dr. Minnus-Dyson. Mickey, in his early 40s, complained he had a massive crevasse in his forehead before Botox. He appreciates what it has done for him, he said, even as he eagerly anticipated the feeling of the coldness of the liquid entering through his skin where it will be massaged in to spread it through the muscle.

Effects take about two days, and although people ice the area and it appears a tad red in spots after treatment, most  feel fine later. The numbing cream helps beforehand on the injection sites.

What’s next — perhaps another Botox and wine party, but there’s more rejuvenation on the horizon. The good doctor is studying platelet-rich plasma taken from the patient’s own veins to regenerate breasts, face and butt, she said.

Could Blood, Botox and Bangs Night at the salon be next on the horizon?