Say goodbye to fine lines with Dysport Treatment
Tried and tested: Wipe away wrinkles
WHAT I TRIED Dysport Treatment, an injection a bit like Botox, that wipes away wrinkles and frown lines.
WHAT I EXPECTED Having already experienced the miracle that is Botox, I wasn’t expecting much from this, to be honest, it seemed to be more of the same. I just thought I should try it as I’d never heard of it and anything that gets rid of that angry dent between my eyebrows sounds good to me. It works much like Botox, blocking the signal from the nerve to the muscles and temporarily preventing the contraction of the muscles that cause lines.
WHAT HAPPENED The handsome Italian Dr Maurizio looks like something out of Nip/Tuck – all beautifully coiffed and immaculate in his white coat. He pulls my forehead around a bit, asks me to smile and then prepares the needle. He tells me that Dysport is like Botox, made from the same neurotoxin (botulinum toxin type A), just manufactured by another company. But he finds the results are more natural with Dysport and that he can target areas with more precision than he can with Botox. I believe him; wouldn’t you? He then injects my forehead and around my eyes, which takes less than five minutes. There is a small amount of pain but nothing too bad, and the Italian accent helps ease any discomfort.
THE VERDICT I have to admit I was wrong. Around 75 per cent of my fine lines and wrinkles have gone, leaving just enough to make people think I haven’t had anything done at all. And I can still raise my forehead in surprise, which I couldn’t do with Botox, at least not for the first month or so. I am thrilled with the results. So think outside the Botox and go for it.
Helena Frith Powell
London Centre for Aesthetic Surgery Gulf, Dubai Healthcare City, www.lcas.ae, gulf@lcas.com, 04 375 2393; one area of Dysport costs Dh1,400 and two areas of Dysport costs Dh1,800; the centre offers 10 per cent off your first Dysport treatment to clients carrying a copy of this issue of M magazine
Helena Frith Powell was born in Sweden to a Swedish mother and Italian father, but grew up mainly in England. She is the author of eleven books, translated into several languages including Chinese and Russian. She wrote the French Mistress column The Sunday Times about life in France for several years. She is a regular contributor to the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, The Times, Daily Telegraph, Tatler Magazine and Harper’s Bazaar.
Helena has been the editor of four magazines, including M Magazine, a supplement for the Abu Dhabi-based National Newspaper and FIVE, a high-end fashion glossy, also published in Abu Dhabi. Helena was also editor-in-chief of 360 Life, a quarterly glossy magazine published with the Sports 360 Newspaper in Dubai, part of the Chalhoub Group.
Helena contributes regularly to UK-based newspapers and magazines and holds a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge. She is working on a thriller set in Sweden as well as a novel about the relationship between Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield called Sense of an Echo.
In 2022 her short story The Japanese Gardener came second in the Fish Publishing Short Story Prize. One of her stories was also shortlisted for the Bridport Short Story Prize. When she’s not writing, she works as a headhunter for the media and entertainment industry for the Sucherman Group.
Helena, who was educated at Durham University, lives in the Languedoc region of France with her husband Rupert and their three children.
Bibliography
More France Please, we’re British; Gibson Square 2004
Two Lipsticks and a Lover 2005; Gibson Square (hardback)
All You Need to be Impossibly French; (US version of above) Penguin 2006
Two Lipsticks and a Lover; Arrow Books (paperback) 2007
Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (hardback) 2006
Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (paperback) 2007
So Chic! (French version of Two Lipsticks) Leduc Editions 2008 (also translated into Chinese, Russian and Thai)
More, More France; Gibson Square 2009
To Hell in High Heels; Arrow Books 2009 (also translated into Polish)
The Viva Mayr Diet; Harper Collins 2009
Love in a Warm Climate; Gibson Square 2011
The Ex-Factor; Gibson Square 2013
Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles; Gibson Square 2016
The Arnolfini Marriage; Amazon Kindle December 2016
Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles (paperback); Gibson Square spring 2018
The Longest Night; Gibson Square spring 2019