Lining Up for a Pinch of Poison : One womans public display of affection with Botox.(Brief Article)

My obsession with Botox started innocently enough, with a routine visit to my Hollywood dermatologist. I'd always had an unsightly frown line between my eyebrows, but I used to consider it the mark of a deep thinker. Living in southern California, I had heard a lot about the cosmetic uses of botulinum toxin in recent years. Injected just underneath the skin in the form of a product called Botox, the toxin relaxes wrinkles by paralyzing the underlying facial muscles. The effects typically last three to four months. In high concentrations, botulinum toxin is a deadly poison. But Botox uses extremely diluted doses. I confessed my curiosity to the doctor, though the idea of having a potential biological weapon injected into my face made me a little queasy. My doctor assured me that the injection would take only a second. Just moments after agreeing toit, my forehead was relaxing in a state of botulism-induced bliss.

A few days later I noticed a difference: the frown line between my eyebrows had disappeared! I was hooked. Now millions of other American women can be, too; the Food and Drug Administration recently approved the toxin for temporary wrinkle removal. Mind you, most women in my part of the country couldn't care less if Botox had FDA approval or not. Statistics show that more than 1.6 million cosmetic Botox procedures were performed in the United States last year, and I'll bet that most of those were in Los Angeles. Still, millions of women in America's heartland--not to mention the rest of the world--are unfamiliar with the wonders of a little shot of poison in the face.

Not me. Increasingly comfortable with the procedure, I decide to try a "Brows and Botox" event at the trendy Valerie Beverly Hills cosmetics salon. I arrive fashionably late and leave my car with the parking valet. Inside, I find dozens of denim- and Prada-clad women nibbling finger sandwiches and sipping Perrier. Alcohol is a no-no; it's hard to give informed consent to a medical procedure if you're tipsy.

First salon owner Valerie Sarnelle waxes each woman's eyebrows into McDonald's arches. Then Dr. Jessica Wu, a Harvard Medical School-trained cosmetic dermatologist, discreetly shoots up the women with Botox as they sit in a makeup artist's chair. The scene is a little jarring, like ...