We’ve spent hours collectively fixating on our own faces during Zoom calls through the pandemic (does my nose really look like that? Where did all these crow’s feet come from?!). Enter the “Zoom boom,” a term some are using to describe the correlating rise in demand for the services of plastic surgeons and aesthetic professionals.
Earlier this year, the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery reported that 70 per cent of surveyed plastic surgeons have seen business increase since March, 2020, while medi-spas from Vancouver to Toronto say they have been scheduled to the brim. For some folks, the pandemic provided a convenient (notwithstanding lockdown-related clinic closings) time to have – and covertly recover from – cosmetic surgeries such as rhinoplasties and chin augmentations. And despite the continuing threat of COVID-19, plenty of people have also used this time to dip a toe into the shallow end of the procedure pool by undergoing some of the less invasive treatments – or “tweakments” – growing in popularity.
As cosmetic techniques have advanced in recent years, tweakments have steadily gained currency as a hypersubtle way to refresh one’s visage. Often, these quick, relatively non-invasive procedures can involve “small amounts of baby Botox,” says Dr. Katie Beleznay, a Vancouver medical and cosmetic dermatologist and a University of British Columbia dermatology instructor.
Used on the forehead and brow area, baby Botox – which generally involves 10 to 20 units of botulinum, compared with the 20-25 units used in conventional Botox treatments – softly smooths skin and can even give brows a modelesque lift at the outer arch. Botox “lip flips,” a small injection into the cupid’s bow, have become particularly popular among those who are curious to see themselves with a fuller upper lip without committing to filler. While results differ for everyone, Botox generally lasts around four months compared with fillers, which can remain for closer to a year.
Beleznay is also seeing high interest in the use of small amounts of filler “to harmonize features and add subtle lift to the face” – as well as tweaks such as injecting microdroplets of hyaluronic acid into the skin to create a hydrated, elastic complexion, tear-trough filler to smooth undereye divots and lasers to brighten up the skin tone. “One of my own personal favourite [tweaks] is a little bit of Botox into the neck,” Beleznay says. “It can reduce [vertical] banding and help with the appearance of the jawline,” she says. A little filler in the area can also combat the horizontal lines, a.k.a. “tech neck,” many of us have beheld in our Zoom videos this year.
Data supports the idea that months of video calls have affected our self-perception; according to a 2020 poll published in the journal Facial Plastic Surgery & Aesthetic Medicine, 40 per cent of respondents with no previous history of facial cosmetic tweaks planned to undergo treatment based solely on appearance-related concerns arising from videoconferencing. Save Face, a U.K. register of accredited aesthetic professionals, saw a 37-per-cent increase in people researching non-surgical procedures such as Botox and filler on their site after the government released its pandemic reopening plan earlier this year.
And it’s not only our faces we’re looking to quickly enhance; “I think the muscle building machine is going to be the biggest thing of 2021,” says Lisa Marie Blair, owner of Vancouver medi-spa The Skin Girls. Recently released professional-grade tools such as the EmSculpt and Evolve Tone, both of which use electric currents to stimulate muscle contractions, have taken off, says Blair, who treats patients with the latter. “You put it on your abs, on your butt, and you will make about 30,000 contractions in 30 minutes,” she says. “You feel like you’ve had an incredible workout,” and may see improved muscle tone after a series of treatments.
Alice Hart-Davis is a British beauty journalist who has become an industry expert on tweakments specifically. The way she sees it, smaller-scale cosmetic procedures are not only appealing to under-30s keen on enhancing their features, but also to the over-40 set, who may have spent years debating whether or not to spend money on more intimidating surgeries, and worrying that they might emerge looking too obviously “done.” “The key thing is to find a great practitioner, because they will treat you appropriately, you will look great, you will look refreshed, they won’t be trying to turn you into someone else, and then it’s up to you whether to tell people what you’re doing,” she says. No medical procedure of any size should be taken lightly, yet there is comfort in starting small.
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