Courteney Cox, Monica from *Friends*: When Injections Make You Look Older Instead of Younger
«I didn’t recognize myself anymore.» Courteney Cox, one of the icons of the ’90s thanks to her role as Monica in Friends, has herself publicly expressed her regrets after receiving the injections. How could a woman surrounded by so many professionals have achieved the opposite of the effect she was seeking?
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The answer has nothing to do with her. It stems from a mechanism of facial aging that we still don’t fully understand, and which explains why injections can sometimes make a person look older.
What Really Happens When the Face Ages
People often think that aging is all about wrinkles. In reality, it begins deep within.
Bones lose volume. As we age, the skull becomes thinner and the eye socket enlarges. As a result, the eyebrows droop, dark circles deepen, and the cheekbones sag.
Facial fat also changes. Subcutaneous fat decreases, which accelerates the appearance of furrows.
And that's where a lot of people get it wrong: The nasolabial fold and the marionette line are not wrinkles. These are structural depressions caused by sagging tissue. Treating them as mere wrinkles is missing the point.
Why Hyaluronic Acid Is So Popular
In light of this loss of volume, hyaluronic acid injections are a logical solution. The idea is to counteract the first signs of aging before they become established, since it is much easier to treat early signs of aging than a face that shows significant signs of aging.
But there's a catch.
When Injections Make You Look Younger
Injections can restore a rested appearance in four zones, provided that they are actually dug:
- the cheekbones
- the nasolabial fold
- the wrinkle of bitterness
- the jawline
It depends on the situation: if the cheekbones already have good volume, don't add anything.
When They Make You Look Older: Two Mistakes to Watch Out For
Mistake No. 1: Overdoing it. If too much is injected, the skin is stretched more than necessary. When the hyaluronic acid is absorbed, the skin—which has been stretched—sags even more. This actually accelerates skin sagging rather than slowing it down. That’s why it’s so important to analyze each face and inject just the right amount to compensate for natural loss—no more, no less.
Mistake #2: Injecting in the wrong place. There is an area of the face, located above the nasolabial fold and the marionette line, where excess skin accumulates over time. It is confined by these two folds. Eventually, this area tends to become too voluminous and disrupt the balance of the face.
Adding product to this area only accelerates the aging process: it amplifies what time is already doing. Over the years, the cheekbones become more sunken, the furrows deepen, and the jawline loses volume, while this area becomes heavier.
How to Make the Right Choices
- Analyze Before Injecting. The right size depends on your body type, not on a trend.
- Inject only where there is a distinct indentation, not in areas that already contain volume or that will accumulate it.
- Aim for the Right Dose, without trying to erase all traces of time.
- Anticipating Changes in Facial Features : We don't get injections just for how our face looks today, but for how it will look in ten years.
The goal: a naturally rested face
The goal isn't to achieve a perfect, frozen-in-time face. It's to look naturally rested, refreshed, and full of life. When you no longer recognize your own face, it almost always means you've crossed that line.
