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The bizarre procedure celebrities use to stop sweat

Woman gets botox in armpits, as did Chrissy Teigan
Armpit Botox: Getting "sweating injections" like Chrissy Teigen could make sweat marks a thing of the past. Photo: Getty

Chrissy Teigen has revealed she had armpit Botox injections to stop her sweating.

Sharing the procedure on her Instagram stories, she wrote: “Botoxed my armpits. Truly the best move I have ever made”.

Underneath, she added: “I can wear silk again without soaking woohoo!”.

The procedure was performed by American plastic surgeon and television personality Dr Jason Diamond, according to screenshots obtained by The Independent.

Teigen’s sweating injections seem to have sparked a botox craze, with many followers jumping on the bandwagon.

She’s not the first celeb to promote the sweat-free lifestyle either.

Jessica Rowe has often been open about her use of the procedure to combat excessive sweatiness.

She’s also been outspoken about the need to talk about ‘embarassing’ topics like sweat to find more effective treatments.

Read up before you needle up

As with every beauty craze, it bear investigation before you take the leap.

Two leading experts in the field are Dr. Paul Reddy, Medical Director of Therapie Clinic, Europe’s largest provider of Botox, and Dr Tijion Esho, of London-based ESHO Clinic weighed in on the bizarre procedure.

“Armpit sweat can be very debilitating for some people, so this procedure is very common among professionals,” Dr Reddy tells Yahoo.

Botox stops your apocrine glands – a.k.a sweat glands – from producing sweat, by “blocking the layer of fibres that stimulate these glands to sweat”, he explains.

How does armpit Botox work?

“Botox is a quite effective form of treatment for treating hyperhidrosis or sweating in patients,” says Dr Esho.

“It blocks the signals from the nerves to the sweat glands and tells the sweat glands to stop producing sweat.”

Before treatment, a starch iodine test is used to detect the areas of the armpit which produce the most sweat “giving a more targeted approach”.

“This is where we would put starch on the patients armpit and then iodine, the skin then turns a blue/purple colour where the patient predominantly sweats indicating where we will need to inject, Thus making our injections more precise.”

How long does it take to be effective?

Botox injected under the arms starts to work with three to five days of the treatment taking place, reaching peak efficiency at two weeks, Dr Esho explains.

Is it safe?

We’ve all heard Botox horror stories.

But, according to Dr Esho, the treatment is “perfectly safe” as long as it is administered by a trained medical professional: a doctor or a dentist or a nurse.

“These treatments can be perfectly safe, but they are medical treatments and therefore they can still have medical adverse effects,” he says.

“Therefore you need to make sure you are seeking a medical professional to treat.”

Always make sure you do your research, only work with certified doctors and have a consultation before committing to a procedure, adds Dr Reddy.

How does your body respond?

As much as the idea of something injecting your armpit might sound scary, the procedure shouldn’t be a painful experience”, explains Dr Esho.

Just like regular Botox, thin needles are used for the injections, meaning they are minimally painful. The sensation is more like a “small pinch” and will be “over within 10-15 minutes”.

Though some think plugging one hole will just increase sweat from other areas, Dr Esho says you are unlikely to notice more sweat from elsewhere on your body.

“We have within our body on average anywhere between 2-4million sweat glands – so all we can doing is suppressing those glands in that particular area,” he explains.

“The patient will still sweat normally in other areas.”

How much and how long?

Australian clinics tends to vary from $800 to $1000 for treatment.

While it all depends on the individual and how their body responds, armpit botox generally lasts somewhere between three and six months, says Dr Reddy.

Australian Skin Clinics say however, that their treatment can last for 9 months.

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