Turn back the years

You don't need to be a beauty guru to know women want youthful skin that reminds them of petals and babies' cheeks - soft, radiant and smooth.

This yearning is the bottom-line of the beauty business and in recent years has fuelled billion dollar research into new ways of rejuvenating those saggy bits that pile on each birthday.

Spot-the-Botox may have become a favourite put-down as celebrities mysteriously shed jowls and wrinkles and acquire that tell-tale wide-eyed stare but would you refuse a few free syringe-fulls of botulinum toxin squirted under your eyebrows?

I didn't and you should see how lovely my glabellar regions (forehead) look now. Because Botox really does work. It's not instant Peter Pan or turn-the-clock-back 20 years but it definitely holds off those small decrepitudes that can be so depressing.

Elfish Cliff Richard has been using it for years and Ann Robinson recently wowed TV Viewers with a soft focus rebuilt neck and face that even prompted Terry Wogan to reconsider his description of her as a cross between Cruella de VII and Hitler's mother. Suddenly the bargain-basement dominatrix had become, well - softer, younger, kinder-looking.

Botox lasts four to six months and works by paralysing the underlying muscles responsible for wrinkles. Unlike beauty treatments down the millennia - from Cleopatra and her asses' milk to today's sophisticated collagen creams - it lifts from the inside.

Here at Hair and Beauty World Drive In, all kinds of clients from all walks of life come along for a shot of Botox. Some are seasoned users: others are Botox virgins. Last month we treated a judge keen to pass sentence on her crow's feet and the next day a 70-plus woman who we had to heave on to the couch.

We also see business executives, public-relations consultants, teachers, healthcare professionals, actors, secretaries, journalists' and that's men as well as women.

Some of them come for what we call dermal fillers, an alternative to Botox. This may sound like DIY on crumbling bathroom tiles but it works in a similar way to Botox, by injecting a gel of hyaluronic acid (found naturally in the body) to smooth or contour folds or lines.

Restylane, the filler we use, is known as an "excellent volume creator" in the trade, which means it restores an appearance of elasticity and fullness to skin exhausted by life's experiences and demands.

Made by a Swedish biotechnology company which specialises in medical implants, Restylane's promo video is very popular in our salon, especially when our nurse Pam Philips - also known as Pam for lips - introduces it.

Celebrities like singer Lulu or EastEnder Sharon may have been Botoxed for years but more and more ordinary men and women are now demanding effective weapons against ageing.

Gone are the days when a dab of Oil of Ulay at bedtime sufficed for skincare. Today's babes dare to demand a transformation that would have astonished our grandmothers.