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More Young Women Are Self-Injecting Botox than You Think

The latest DIY beauty hack isn’t for the squeamish

Whenever she self-injects Botox, Ashlee Gallop tends to focus mainly on her forehead. The thirty-two-year-old has absolutely no medical training, but that minor detail hardly deters the mother of two.

Botox is a muscle relaxer; it’s used to reduce wrinkles and alter facial musculature. It’s also a prescription drug and controlled substance that should only be administered by a licensed professional—so you would think Gallop would be private about engaging in the practice. Quite the contrary: the beauty influencer regularly demonstrates her self-injection process to her social media followers. In one TikTok video, you can watch her mapping out points on her forehead as she preps for a refresh.

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I can’t fathom a thirty-two-year-old having frown lines; but then again, from what I can see through the Zoom camera, Gallop doesn’t have the typically tired look associated with mothers of young children (she has an infant and a toddler). “My natural resting face shows deep forehead wrinkles,” she explains to me from her home in Ocala, Florida, over a video call. “I also address the crow’s feet at the corner of my eyes, and sometimes I’ll do a little ‘lip flip,’ which makes the top lip seem fuller. I’ve done my jawline—they call it the ‘Nefertiti Lift’—but I didn’t get the results I wanted so I don’t think I’ll do that next time.”

Gallop’s Botox journey started out above board. “I first got it done at a medical spa when I was twenty-five,” she says. “I’ve had it done professionally a couple of times. The last time was last year, after I had my second baby.”

It was after that second treatment that she realized that the three-to-four-month refresh—the average timeline when her forehead lines and crow’s feet tend to creep back—wasn’t sustainable. It cost $468 (US), she says. “Life is expensive. Babies are expensive. And then I was like, ‘I wonder if people do this themselves.’” Gallop went down a rabbit hole and found a lot of untrained people were doing their own Botox.

She researched every available source, including TikTok and YouTube videos. “There’s a ton of injectors, med spas, and nurse practitioners that have their own pages on there that will not only film their clients but also give education videos.” Gallop also found articles published by injectors. “I just kind of read everything.”

There was obviously some fear around taking things into her own hands, so Gallop sat with the idea for a full six months before deciding, this past September, to give it a try. A misplaced needle could result in a serious infection, allergic reaction, muscle paralysis, or even respiratory failure. But Gallop reasons that there’s a risk with everything. “I’ve always been like, ‘Okay, we’re just gonna go for........

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