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NBC's Diana Gonzalez ReportingThe beauty battle to make your face look younger has a new approach. Instead of trying to remove lines and wrinkles, the idea is to stop them from appearing in the first place. This face-aging prevention is starting at an unbelievably young age.
To reverse the signs of aging, people turn to all kinds of tools and techniques. 26-year-old Marianne Aleman didn't want to wait until she was middle aged to start wrinkle treatments.
Marianne Aleman, Aging Prevention Patient: "The world we live in that everybody puts all this pressure on, you know, on the youth and staying young, looking fresh and young. And so I just didn't want to have those issues later on down the road."
At just 21, Marianne started botox injections. She now works for the manufacturer, Allergan. It has given her brow area, "separation and a slight lift."
For years, Dr. Oscar Hevia has been relaxing wrinkles. He's noticed a change.
Dr. Oscar Hevia , Dermatologist: "There's no question, there's no question that we're seeing younger and younger patients. One of the first things that starts to happen is expression lines."
In these cases he is trying to prevent lines and wrinkles from setting in.
Dr. Oscar Hevia , Dermatologist: "And now, especially with the advent of Botox in particular, but other things as well, we're able to sort of hold the process, the aging process to some extent."
The strategy, attacking frown lines, crow's feet, smile lines at the earliest stage, before they become noticeable.
Dr. Oscar Hevia: "We actually inject a filler material such as collagen or Restylyne into this line to basically erase it."
At 30, Natalie Reed is a three-year veteran of the war on wrinkles. She's used fillers and botox.
Natalie Reed: "The way that I look at it is that hopefully it's preserving me, and when I'm older it will look like I've never changed."
The advantages to early aging treatments include a more natural look and treatments are less frequent and less aggressive .
Dr. Oscar Hevia: "One of the disadvantages probably of starting very early is your standard is very, very high. Of course, if you have basically almost nothing on your face, you're going to have very high standards for yourself, and as you get older you might be a little bit harder on yourself."
Trying to slow down aging already? Marianne's family had this reaction.
Marianne Aleman: "They weren't really sure why I was doing it. But, you know, they just don't understand."
And Natalie's clients at her skin care salon?
Natalie Reed: "You know, they all look at me like I'm crazy."
Doctor Hevia said he would never treat a patient under the age of 18 with botox or facial fillers.
