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ELLE BEAUTY REPORT THE OTHER SOE OFTHEMRROR Incorrigible Botox bum Elizabeth Hayt became curiousto know how her compulsions appeared from where her own Dr. Lookgood,therenowned Fredric Brandt, MO, stood. And so asociologyof cosmetic dermatology was born n a Friday night at 7:30, blond hair shows not a glint of gray, side?Who werethe livingsubjectscrunched 12hoursand 17patients thanks to colorist Kyle White of the Oscar into these numbers? I- a seasoned con since the day began at B1andi Salon. And at 5'11", his frame, sumer, staunch defender, and longtime Dr. Fredric Brandt's nourished by egg-white omelets, pome voluntary lab rat for professional cosmetic Manhattan office, all granate seeds, and Ashtanga yoga, holds interventions-felt it was incumbent on me sevenexarniningrooms at an unvarying 155 pou nds. Between his to flesh out the findings, which is how I were still in full swing. lilting spirit, his spry step, and his utter came to spend two days tailing Dr. Brandt, The lasers were puls fixation on youthful beauty, he is cosmetic a man who, with a loaded syringe and ing, the syringes kept medicine's Peter Pan . needle, would rival Michelangelo, were he coming, and the good Singing, "Squirt, squirt, squirt went not a dead sculptor but a living cosmetic doctor, wearing navy blue Prada stirrup the needle/Plump, plump, plump went the dermatologist. pants, a black Prada belt with a seat-belt lips" to the tune of"TheTrolley Song" from I temporari ly stepped outside my usual size buckle, metallic Gucci sneakers, and Meet Me in St. Louis, Brandt bounded from role as a habitual user of injectables, forever apple green Alain Mikli glasses-a look appointment to appointment. "So what are chasing the intact collagen fibers of youth. part Flash Gordon, part Ziggy Stardust we doing today?" he asked one woman Besides myself, I wondered, what sorts of was full of beans. Only his white Dolce & whose face was slathered with cold, goopy patients-in Brandt's office they're tellingly Gabbana shirttail, half untucked and numbing cream in preparation for what referred to as "clients"-will pay as much as smeared with traces of some emollient, ever teeth-gritting cosmetic procedure was $7,000for a full face of injections, not once, betrayed his blistering pace. to come. "A biseleli of Bo?" Brandt asked, but up to three times a year? (I'm waiting an "Dry cleaning's part of the overhead using the Yiddish word for "a tiny amount" extra month for my next round because, if you want to look like a runway model and shorthand for "Botox." according to my loved ones, my cheeks are at work," Brandt told me cheerily. Preter starting to become bulky-looking.) naturally youthful-looking at 58, he has In 2006, almost 11 million cosmetic pro One thing I knew: Th ese women were an un lined and jowl-less face, cour tesy of cedures were performed in this country, die-hard beauty bums. J ust after 9/11, a self-administered Botox and Restylane ringing up more than $11 billion in fees, mother, 68, and daug hter, 43, who live in injections, liberal use of hydrating and according to the American Society of Michigan but come frequently to New exfoliatingsolution s, and laser treatments PlasticSurgeons. But this data leftme want York for Brandt, couldn't get a flight out. that tone and tighten his skin. His golden ing more : Where was the human-interest Rather than miss their appointments or ELlE 276 www . e l le .co m [ELLEBEAUTY REPORT reboo k them for a later date, they opte d to laid my gaze as a psycho-socio spectatrix most or corrupt her moral fiber (much). drive some 700 miles to make it-on time, and derm atological taxonomist. In the meantime, Brandt was hard at no less. work, sinking Restylane-jacked needles With Brandt's perm ission as well as his The Middle-aged Virgin into her face while he explained, "It's not clients' (who shall all remain nameless), I wrinkles that make a person look old, it's chronicled the goings-on at his two offices, She was a 53-year-old Uppe r East Sider, a the collapse of the rounded surfaces that between which he divides his time-two senior executive at a financial firm, and a reflect light and lend fulln ess to the upp er weeks in Manhattan, two in Miami-as a first-time pati ent. It was hard to believe, face and cheeks , with a tap ering toward cosmetic-dermatology candy striper. Don not because she looked younge r than her the lower face, like an inverted triangle. ning an unglamorous pair of baggy black age, but because she looked 10 years That's the shape that makes a woman look scrubs-Brandt's staff uniform-I fell in, older-or what 10 years older would look beautiful and younger. In older women , bringi ng up the rear of the conga line of like if 50 were n't the new 40. Dressed in a the lower part of the face gets heavier, "girls," as the nurses call themselves, who Simple white shirt, black pants, an d beat while the upp er part gets hollowed out. followBrandtfrom room to room,arranging up blac k mules and carrying a no-name The Restylan e can reverse that change." In stead of using plain stra ight nee dles, Brandt bend s the tips 30 to 45 degrees. He delivered the fillers at an angle under What's the alternative? Pu ll a the patient's skin, adding volume to the woman's cheeks and chin, distribu ting Greta Garbo/become arecluse the material closer to the sur face in a fan like fashion in order to blend the edges of at 36? Betterto coat all the the filler agents with her new facial con tours. This process made them appear mirrorswithVaseline. natural and gently sloped. By adding derm al fillers on both sides of the woman's nose and around her cheek trays of cotton gauze, sharp medical instru black bag, h e~ brunette hair in desperate bones, the injectionsdid double duty, lifting ments, and latex gloves filled with frozen need of a good cut, she was clearly low and firming up her lax lower face, and pull peas to be used as ice packs for postinjection maintenance. ing up and smoothing the deep nasolabial swelling and bruising. But at a recent NARAL luncheon, she'd folds known by the cloying euphemism Feeling left out, I snatched up a clipboard had an epiphany: All the women in the "marionette lines." When he finished, an as a prop, which doubled as a steno pad for room had looked great, she said, which hour had passed and the red biohazard recording my thoughts and insights. I now made her acutely aware of her sorry state. waste bin was spilling over with empty vials felt part of the team, offering "oohs" and She decided that it was time for a "boost." of Botox and used syringes. "aahs" of encouragement to a client who Her husband was all too gung ho. (Ouch.) "What I would suggest next is to fill in was clenching her fists and curling her toes "I have the face of a gerbil," the woman the outline of your lips," Brandt said, step as she submitted to Brandt's needl ework. announced to Brandt. Despite this brutally ping back for one last look. "But you've "Your lips look so, uh, pillowy," I com honest self-assessment, she was scared to had a lot of needles. Let's leave your mouth plimented her, trying not to wince as death. It wasn't the needles that terrified for another day." Brandt jabbed another dollop of plumper her or that she might look "different," What a gentleman. He knew that any into the tender tissue of her meager mouth, altered but not necessarily better. Her fear virgin , middle-aged or otherwise, needs to prompting tears to spring from her eyes, was altogether more profound: "I wouldn't be broken in slowly, be reassured there will the numbing ointment on her lips about as want to seem narci ssistic, that this is all I be a next time, and have reason to hope for effective as holding a newspaper over your think about," she said. something more that will still be new and head in a downpour. "Take a look," I said Her equivocation clearly stemmed from special.Thus, when the woman stepped into approvingly, holding up a mirror. a misguided Pur itanical Guilt Complex. the elevator, she had a change of heart. "Hoo-dah-hah," she moaned, doing her Given my long history with manufactured Suddenly liberated from her freshly plowed best to say beautiful; but her lips- each now cosmetic enhancement, I wanted to assure und er moral compunctions,she stuck her leg inflated to the size ofSwedish gummy fish herthatimprovingher appea rance wouldn't into the closing doors, popping them back were in no shape to form words. Still, her corrode her beliefthatwhat's inside matters open, and rushed Brandt's receptionist. eyes beamed at her reflection. ~r--------'~ A mirror maid, that was me. Rather than Ita.. laser in a bottle" Jurllqu slavishly scrutinizing and obsessing over my • own appearance, I would freely observe IB( laser reliefTH other women doing as I do: embracing an r+. array of cosmetic procedures that, on the one hand, enable ordinary-looking women FEELINGNEEDLY? to achieve a sense that they are noticeably Brandt 's regu lars could school the best pretty, and on the other hand are, to all makeup artists on how to hide every post injection issue.

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