Frown lines are the two vertical creases that sit between your eyebrows. Most people notice them in a photograph rather than a mirror, because by the time you have arranged your face for a mirror you have usually stopped frowning. In a photograph you are concentrating, or squinting into the sun, and there they are.
They are the area I treat most often at House of Glam HQ, and they are one of the three standard anti-wrinkle areas at £170. Below is what that buys, how to tell whether your lines will actually respond, and the things this treatment will not do for you. Every price is published, where most Portsmouth clinics quote only after a consultation.
What are frown lines actually called?
Clinically they are glabellar lines. The glabella is the small patch of skin between your eyebrows and just above your nose, and the lines that form there are named after it. You will also see them called the elevens, because two vertical creases side by side look like the number eleven.
They come from two muscles working together. The corrugators sit under the inner end of each eyebrow and pull the brows inwards towards each other. The procerus runs down the middle and pulls the inner brow down. Every time you concentrate, squint or feel irritated, those muscles gather the skin into a vertical fold. Do it enough times over enough years and the fold stops flattening out when you relax.
Why some people get them in their twenties
Because it is about muscle use, not just age. People who squint at a screen all day, or who have been short-sighted for years without realising, or who simply have strong corrugators, get these lines earlier than people who do not. I have treated frown lines on people in their late twenties whose foreheads are otherwise completely smooth, and I have seen sixty-year-olds with barely a mark between the brows.
It is also the area where the line and the expression get read together. A deep eleven makes a resting face look cross, which is why people who come in about this one usually describe how they are perceived rather than how they look.
What frown lines treatment costs in Portsmouth
Frown lines count as one standard area. Here is my full anti-wrinkle list, so you can see where that sits.
| Anti-wrinkle treatment | Price |
|---|---|
| 1 standard area, frown lines on their own | £170 |
| 2 standard areas, usually frown and forehead | £210 |
| 3 standard areas, the whole upper face | £250 |
| Brow lift, the tail of both brows | £150 |
| Lip flip | £150 |
| Bunny lines, across the bridge of the nose | £150 |
| Chin dimpling | £150 |
| Masseter, for clenching or a wide lower face | £180 |
The £170 is for the area, not per line and not per injection. Whether your glabella takes four placements or six is a decision I make on the day based on how hard those muscles pull, and it does not change the price.
Are your frown lines dynamic or static?
This is the question that decides how happy you will be, and it is worth two minutes in front of a window before you book anything.
Look at your face completely relaxed, in daylight, without make-up. Then frown hard and look again.
If the lines only appear when you frown, they are dynamic. Relaxing the muscle stops the fold forming, and dynamic lines typically respond well. If the lines are still visible when your face is doing nothing, they are static, and they have been etched into the skin itself. Relaxing the muscle stops them deepening and usually softens them over the weeks that follow as the skin is left alone, but it does not iron out a crease that is already set.
Most people are somewhere in between, and that is fine. What matters is that you know which one you are, because a static line treated with a realistic expectation is a good result and the same line treated expecting it to vanish is a disappointment. I will tell you which you have at the consultation. If I think you will not get what you are picturing, I will say so rather than take £170.
Where the injections go and what the appointment is like
I watch your face move first. I will ask you to frown hard, then raise your brows, because the two muscle groups pull against each other and I need to see which is winning. Nobody is symmetrical, and most people have one corrugator noticeably stronger than the other.
Then a handful of small injections across the glabella with a very fine needle. The whole appointment runs about fifteen to twenty minutes, most of which is talking rather than injecting. Most people describe a brief pinch and most do not need numbing cream. You will have a few tiny raised marks afterwards and they fade within the hour.
Afterwards: stay upright for four hours, do not rub the area, and leave exercise and alcohol until tomorrow. The full list is in what I have written about what to expect after anti-wrinkle injections.
Nothing happens on the way home. The first change usually shows at three to five days and it settles by fourteen, which is why the 14-day review is included and why I ask you to come back for it. A treatment typically lasts three to six months. The glabella is a strong muscle group, so for some people it sits at the shorter end of that.
Can you get rid of frown lines forever?
No, and I would not believe anyone who told you otherwise.
Anti-wrinkle injections are temporary by design. The muscle recovers, the frowning resumes, and the line comes back. What you can do is keep it suppressed with repeat treatment, and there is a reasonable argument that years of not creasing the skin leaves you with a shallower line than you would otherwise have had. That is a side effect of consistency rather than a cure, and it is not something I will promise you.
Surgery can divide the corrugator muscles permanently, usually during a brow lift under general anaesthetic. That is a surgeon’s conversation and it is not something I offer. The honest framing for what I do is maintenance, not removal.
What can I do instead of anti-wrinkle injections?
Plenty, as long as you are clear that none of it stops the muscle.
Daily sunscreen is the single most useful thing, because sun damage is what turns a dynamic line into a static one. A retinoid, used consistently for months rather than weeks, improves the quality of the skin sitting over the muscle and can make a shallow line look softer. Neither does anything about the fold itself.
For skin quality specifically, I offer skin boosters at £165 for Seventy Hyal and £185 for Profhilo, and microneedling from £80 for the face. Those treat texture and hydration. They are a sensible choice if your real complaint is that the skin across your forehead looks tired, and the wrong choice if your complaint is a deep crease that appears every time you concentrate.
And there is the unhelpful honest answer: frown less. Get your eyes tested, move your screen, wear sunglasses. It genuinely matters, and it is also very difficult to do on purpose.
Is there a household item that fills in wrinkles?
Not in any lasting sense, no. This one goes round regularly and it is usually petroleum jelly.
Occlusive products such as petroleum jelly sit on the surface and stop water evaporating out of the skin. Skin holding more water is plumper, and plumper skin makes a fine line less obvious for a few hours. That effect is real, temporary and superficial. It does not fill anything, and it does nothing to a line caused by a muscle folding the skin underneath.
Harmless to try. Just do not expect it to do anything to an eleven.
What are frownies, and do they work?
Frownies are adhesive patches you stick between your brows overnight to physically stop the skin creasing while you sleep. Some people do crease their glabella in their sleep, particularly face-down sleepers, so there is a logic to it.
What they can do is hold the skin flat for the hours you wear them, so you may wake up looking slightly smoother. What they cannot do is relax the muscle during the fourteen or more hours a day you are awake and using it, and they do not undo a line that is already etched. Not something I sell, and a reasonable add-on rather than an alternative.
Are fillers better than anti-wrinkle injections for frown lines?
For this area, no, and I want to be specific about why.
Anti-wrinkle injections relax the muscle that makes the fold, which is the actual cause. Dermal filler adds volume underneath a crease, which is the right answer in places where tissue has been lost, such as nasolabial folds or marionette lines. The glabella is not one of those places. The problem there is muscle, not missing volume.
I do not place dermal filler in the frown line at all. It is not on my price list. The glabella carries blood vessels that make it one of the highest-risk sites on the face for filler, and relaxing the muscle achieves what people are actually asking for. If a static line is still visible once the muscle is relaxed, the sensible next step is skin quality work, not product injected into that spot. I have written more on the general question of which of the two you actually need.
Should you treat your forehead at the same time?
Often yes, and this is the part worth understanding before you book one area and wonder why your forehead feels odd.
Your frown muscles pull the brow down and your forehead muscle pulls it up. If I relax only the frown muscles, the forehead is briefly unopposed and some people find their brows sit a little higher or their forehead works harder than it used to. For most people that is a non-event and some actively like it, because relaxing the frown muscles also lifts the inner brow slightly. For a few it reads as a heavy or surprised-looking forehead. Treating both together at £210 keeps the balance predictable, which is why they are the most common pair.
| What you book | Price |
|---|---|
| Frown lines alone | £170 |
| Frown lines and forehead | £210 |
| Frown lines, forehead and crow’s feet | £250 |
| Frown lines and a brow lift | £320 |
A brow lift is a separate £150 treatment rather than one of the three standard areas, so booking it alongside frown lines is simple addition. It is also often unnecessary, because treating the frown muscles lifts the inner brow a little on its own. If you are considering both, treat the frown lines first and let me look at your brow again at the 14-day review before you pay for a second thing.
The £25 prescriber consultation comes first
The injectable used for frown lines is a prescription-only medicine, so a prescriber has to assess you before a first treatment. That is £25, it is a legal requirement rather than something I have invented, and I arrange it for you.
The detail people get wrong: it is paid once per prescription period, not once per treatment and not once per area. If you have your frown lines done and come back for your crow’s feet inside the same period, you do not pay it again.
| What it is | Cost |
|---|---|
| Prescriber consultation, before a first treatment, once per prescription period | £25 |
| Standalone consultation on Fresha, deducted from your treatment | £15 |
| 14-day review after your treatment | Included |
Consultations here are never free. The £15 one is a deposit that comes off the treatment if you go ahead, and if you book the treatment directly, the consultation happens at the start of that appointment with nothing extra to pay.
What frown lines treatment will not do
The list that saves disappointment:
- It will not erase a static line that is already etched into the skin. It softens it and stops it getting worse.
- It will not be permanent. Three to six months, then it wears off.
- It will not lift heavy eyelid skin. If your lids look hooded because of loose skin rather than brow position, no injectable changes that.
- It will not work on the day. Three to five days before anything shows, fourteen before it has settled.
- It will not do anything for the horizontal lines across your forehead. Those are a different muscle and a second area.
- It will not stop you having expressions. A frown treatment at a sensible dose leaves you able to move your face, and I have written about whether you will look frozen if that is the worry.
It is for adults only, not during pregnancy or breastfeeding, and not with an active skin infection at the site. The prescriber goes through all of that at the £25 consultation, so bring your medical history and mention anything you are unsure about.
One more thing on language. What most people are searching for here is Botox. That is a brand of botulinum toxin and a prescription-only medicine, which is why you will see it written on this site as anti-wrinkle injections. If the naming is confusing you, I have set out whether the two names mean the same thing.
Book frown lines treatment in Southsea
I am Natasha. I do every treatment at House of Glam HQ myself, including this one, and I have been injecting in Portsmouth for more than seven years. The person who watches your face move at the consultation is the person who injects you and the person who sees you again at fourteen days.
Frown lines, one area — £170. Book one area on Fresha. For frown and forehead together, book two areas at £210, or three areas at £250 for the whole upper face.
First time having anti-wrinkle injections with me? Message me before you book so I can arrange your £25 prescriber consultation. Message me on WhatsApp or ring 07831 846273 and tell me what is bothering you. If I think your lines are static and you are expecting them to disappear, I will tell you that before you pay for anything.
If you would rather talk it through first, book the £15 consultation and it is deducted from your treatment. The full list of areas and prices is on my anti-wrinkle injections page.
House of Glam HQ is at 1A Auckland Road East, Southsea, Portsmouth PO5 2HA, with free street parking nearby. Clients come for anti-wrinkle injections from Southsea, Fratton, Cosham, Havant, Fareham and Gosport.
