The vertical lines between your brows that appear when you concentrate, and the horizontal lines across your forehead when you raise your eyebrows — the ones that used to disappear when you stopped and now seem etched. They have a cause, and there's a treatment that addresses it directly.
Two muscles are responsible. The corrugator supercilii sits between your brows and pulls them together and downward — that's the muscle that creates the vertical frown lines, sometimes called "eleven lines." The frontalis runs across your forehead and lifts your brows — that's the muscle that creates the horizontal forehead lines.
Every time you concentrate, squint, look at a screen, or raise your brows in expression, those muscles contract and the skin creases. In your twenties and thirties the skin springs back smooth. But over years the same crease forms in the same place thousands of times, and eventually the lines become etched — visible even when your face is at rest.
It's not a sign of ageing gone wrong — it's two muscles doing what muscles do, repeated for years. Frown lines in particular can make people look angry or stressed when they feel nothing of the sort. That's often what brings people in: the face has stopped matching the feeling.
Frown and forehead lines are dynamic lines — they're created by muscle movement, not by something sitting on the surface of the skin. A cream can hydrate and make the skin look slightly smoother, and that's worth doing. But no cream reaches the muscle underneath. The lines appear because the muscle contracts and creases the skin, and the only way to soften that is to reduce the muscle action that creates them.
That's the gap between skincare and treatment: skincare maintains the surface, treatment addresses the mechanism. Both have a place, but they do different things.
How we treat it
Prescription-only botulinum toxin, placed precisely between the brows and across the forehead to relax the muscles that create frown and forehead lines. Results build over 14 days and last three to four months. From £140 for one area, £190 for two.
Frown and forehead lines are a muscle problem, so the treatment has to work on the muscle. Anti-wrinkle injections are the most-studied aesthetic treatment in the world precisely because they address the mechanism directly: the muscle that creates the lines is gently relaxed, the creasing reduces, and the lines fade. Nothing else — no facial, no peel, no device — does this, because nothing else reaches the muscle.
Frown lines are often treated as a pair with crow's feet or forehead lines, because the muscles that create them all respond to the same treatment. That's why anti-wrinkle is priced per area — one area is frown alone, two areas is frown plus forehead or crow's feet, and so on.
A free consultation first — Georgie or Esther will look at your face, check your medical history, and tell you honestly whether anti-wrinkle treatment is right for you. The treatment itself takes about 15 minutes: a few small injections between the brows and/or across the forehead, no downtime, and you carry on with your day. Results build over the following two weeks, and you'll be offered a free review at that point to fine-tune if needed.
It's not suitable during pregnancy or breastfeeding, or for certain neuromuscular conditions — the consultation covers all of this openly.
Anti-wrinkle treatment softens frown and forehead lines very effectively when the lines are muscle-driven — which most are. The aim is a rested, natural look: your face still moves, you still express, the lines are just less visible. If the lines are deeply etched from years of repeated creasing, a single treatment may not fully smooth them — and we'll tell you that honestly, along with what combination approach might help. Being sold a result that can't be delivered is bad value at any price.
Anti-wrinkle injections relax the muscles that create the lines when you frown or raise your eyebrows. The effect lasts three to four months.
Frown lines are caused by the corrugator supercilii muscle — the muscle that pulls your brows together and down when you concentrate, squint or frown. Over years, the skin creases in the same place repeatedly and the lines become etched even at rest.
Forehead lines are caused by the frontalis muscle — the muscle that raises your eyebrows. Every time you lift your brows in surprise or expression, horizontal lines appear across your forehead. Over years, the lines become permanent.
Results typically last three to four months. Many clients book a top-up around then to keep the effect consistent. Your free 14-day review helps us judge the right interval for you.
Book a free consultation. We'll look at your skin, tell you honestly what will and won't help, and give you a plan — not a sales pitch.
Book a free consultation