A twenty-four-year-old Prahran resident has started a course of preventative anti-wrinkle treatment aimed not at any current lines on her face, which her practitioner confirmed do not yet exist, but at a set of wrinkles she is not expected to develop for roughly another twenty-five years.
The treatment, booked after what she describes as "just doing some research," targets the forehead and the outer corners of the eyes, areas her practitioner assessed during a consultation as currently smooth, unlined, and functioning entirely as intended.
"She said I had great skin," the client said. "I said, well, how do I keep it like this. And she said genetics, mostly, and sunscreen. But then we talked about getting ahead of things anyway."
The appointment proceeded on the basis of a concept her practitioner referred to as "prejuvenation," under which treatment begins before any sign of the condition it addresses, in the hope of training the relevant facial muscles out of the habit of forming lines they have not yet attempted to form.
"I don't have dynamic wrinkles," she confirmed, reading from a printed summary of her own consultation. "I have the potential for dynamic wrinkles. Eventually. If I frown a certain amount, over decades, which apparently I might."
Asked what her face currently looks like without the treatment, she paused.
"Fine," she said. "It looks fine. That's sort of the point, though. I want it to keep looking fine specifically because of this, rather than just on its own."
Her practitioner, contacted for comment, confirmed the client was in excellent dermatological health and would ordinarily not be a treatment candidate for another ten to fifteen years, but noted that "a lot of people are choosing to start the conversation early."
The client has booked a follow-up appointment in four months, "just to check in," and has begun mentally tracking her forehead for movement she describes as "nothing yet, but I'm watching it."