Blog · first time · 7 min

The appointment is the boring part.

Fifteen to twenty minutes, a handful of injections that feel like being flicked, and you walk out looking exactly as you did. Everything interesting happens over the following fortnight, which is what nobody prepares people for.

Cedar & Glow / Blog / Your first Botox

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The week before

Stop aspirin, ibuprofen, fish oil, vitamin E and high-dose turmeric, unless prescribed. No alcohol for twenty-four hours. All of them thin the blood and bruising near the eyes is the main thing anybody notices.

7 days

No blood thinners

The assessment

Five minutes of making faces in a mirror. Frown, raise, squint, clench. Where your muscles actually pull is different from where the lines are, and dosing follows the movement rather than the line.

5 min

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The dose

Told to you before anything is drawn up, per area, in units. You agree to a number and are charged for what goes in, which may be fewer.

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$13–16/u

The injections

Ten to twenty tiny injections with a very fine needle. Each one is a sharp flick lasting a second. The glabella stings most; crow’s feet barely register.

10 min

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Straight after

Small raised bumps that go down within an hour. Upright for four hours, no exercise for twenty-four, no rubbing the area. Then normal life.

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4 hr upright

Days three to five

It starts. Not all at once and rarely evenly, and one side almost always moves before the other. This is where people panic and it is meaningless.

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Uneven

Day fourteen

Full effect, and the first honest look. The included follow-up sits here for exactly that reason.

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Follow-up

Expect A sharp flick
×10–20

Small bumps
for an hour

Nothing at all
for three days

Uneven onset
days 3–7

Full result
day 14

The thing people are not told

Neuromodulator does not switch a muscle off, it reduces how strongly it can contract, and it does that gradually as the drug binds. So the first week is a slope rather than a step, and it is a lumpy slope: the left side commonly moves before the right, one eyebrow can sit higher than the other for a few days, and the forehead often softens before the glabella does.

Almost every message we get in week one is about asymmetry at day five. It resolves in nearly every case, and adjusting it before day fourteen means treating a moving target and frequently overdoing it.

What it will not do

Remove a line that is already etched into the skin at rest. Neuromodulator stops the movement that deepens a line; it does not fill one that twenty years of movement has already carved. A deep static glabellar line will soften considerably over several treatments as the skin gets a chance to remodel, and it will not disappear at two weeks.

If a line is visible when your face is completely still and relaxed, that portion of it is a skin problem, and it belongs to microneedling, resurfacing or in some cases a small amount of filler. Anybody who tells you otherwise is selling you a second syringe in three months.

How long it lasts

Three to four months for most areas and four to six for masseter. It does not stop abruptly: movement returns gradually over several weeks, and most people book their next appointment when they notice it starting rather than on a calendar.

Treating before three months is not more effective and does raise the theoretical risk of developing antibodies, which is rare and is a real reason not to top up early.

The frozen question

People who look obviously treated are, almost without exception, people who were dosed heavily in the upper third of the face. It is a dosing decision, not an inevitability of the drug, and the fix is entirely within the control of whoever is holding the syringe.

A first treatment here is deliberately lighter than most people expect, and some of them are mildly disappointed at two weeks. Adding four more units at the follow-up takes ten minutes and costs sixty dollars. Waiting out an overdose takes three months and there is nothing anybody can do about it, which is why the asymmetry is deliberate.

If you are nervous

Start with one area. The glabella alone, at twenty units, is the classic first treatment for good reasons: the effect is obvious to you, invisible to everybody else, and if you dislike it, it is gone in three months with no intervention at all.

That reversibility is the genuinely reassuring thing about neuromodulator and it is worth stating clearly: unlike almost everything else in aesthetics, doing nothing fixes it.

Cedar & Glow·Catalina Foothills, Tucson·Updated August 2026

Asked often.

Does Botox hurt?

Ten to twenty tiny injections, each a sharp flick lasting about a second. The glabella stings most and crow’s feet barely register. The whole appointment is fifteen to twenty minutes.

Why is my Botox uneven after a few days?

Because it binds gradually rather than all at once, and rarely evenly. One side commonly moves before the other between days three and seven. It resolves in nearly every case by day fourteen, which is why the follow-up is at two weeks.

Will Botox remove lines I have when my face is still?

Not fully. It stops the movement that deepens a line but does not fill one already etched into the skin. Static lines soften over several treatments as the skin remodels, and the rest belongs to resurfacing or a small amount of filler.

How long does Botox last?

Three to four months for most areas, four to six for masseter. Movement returns gradually rather than stopping abruptly. Treating earlier than three months is not more effective and slightly raises the theoretical risk of antibody formation.

What if I do not like my Botox?

It wears off completely in three to four months with no intervention. Unlike almost everything else in aesthetics, doing nothing fixes it, which is why one area is a sensible way to start.

Start with one area.

Twenty units in the glabella, obvious to you and invisible to everyone else, and gone in three months if you hate it.

Book a consult See the areas and prices