The forehead muscle is the only one lifting your brow, which is why treating it conservatively matters more here than anywhere else.
Horizontal forehead lines come from the frontalis, the broad sheet of muscle running up the forehead. It has one job: lifting the brows. Every time it does, the skin above it folds, and over years those folds persist at rest.
Treatment reduces that muscle’s activity so the skin folds less and the lines soften. The complication is that the frontalis is the only muscle lifting your brow. Reduce it too much and the brow sits lower, the upper lid looks heavier, and patients describe feeling weighed down. That trade-off is the whole treatment.
At Dr Ellie Sateei’s London clinics the forehead is treated conservatively and almost always alongside the frown area, because treating one without the other unbalances both. Results vary between individuals.
The frontalis lifts, whereas the muscles between and around the brows pull down. As a consequence, brow position is the balance between the two, so reducing only the lifter drops the brow, and reducing only the depressors raises it.
This is why the forehead is rarely treated in isolation. Dr Sateei assesses your resting brow position, how much your forehead recruits when you raise your brows, and whether you are unconsciously using it to hold your lids open, which is common and easy to miss. Dose is then set deliberately low, placed high enough to leave lifting capacity in the lower forehead, and reviewed at two weeks.
Patients with a naturally low brow, heavy upper lids, or a short forehead need particular care and sometimes need less treatment than they came in for. Where an etched line persists at rest, softening the movement improves it partially rather than removing it, and a skin booster or good skincare does more for the remaining crease than more toxin would.
It may suit you if you are looking to:
It is not suitable during pregnancy or breastfeeding, or with certain neuromuscular conditions. It is approached cautiously, and sometimes declined, where your brow already sits low or your upper lids are heavy, because the treatment can make both more noticeable.
Treatment takes around 15 minutes with very fine needles and no numbing. There is no expected downtime, though it is sensible to avoid strenuous exercise, facial massage and lying flat for around four hours.
Onset begins around day three to five, with the full effect at around two weeks. New patients are reviewed then, which matters more on the forehead than anywhere else, because this is where a small adjustment most often improves the balance.
The effect typically lasts three to four months, frequently a little shorter than the frown area, as the forehead is used constantly and the dose is deliberately lighter.
| Treatment | London | Sevenoaks |
|---|---|---|
| Anti-wrinkle injections | From £495 | From £395 |
New patient consultation, £195 at both clinics. If you go ahead with treatment on the day of your appointment, this fee is deducted from the cost of your treatment.Prices correct as published and subject to change.
“The forehead is the muscle holding your eyebrows up. That is worth sitting with for a moment, because it explains every heavy, tired-looking forehead result you have ever seen. Patients arrive asking me to get rid of the lines completely and I explain that the lines and the lifted brow are the same muscle. You can have fewer lines. You cannot have none and keep your brow where it is.”
Dr Ellie Sateei has over two decades of experience in dermatology and aesthetics.
Anti-wrinkle injections are from £495 in London. Your consultation is £195, deducted from treatment on the day.
It can if the dose is too high, because the forehead is the only muscle lifting your brow. Dose is set deliberately low and placed to preserve lifting capacity, and reviewed at two weeks.
Brow position is a balance between the muscle that lifts and the muscles that pull down. Treating one group without the other unbalances the brow, so the two are usually treated together.
Typically three to four months, often slightly shorter than the frown area because the dose is lighter and the muscle is in constant use.
Not while keeping a mobile, lifted brow. Lines that only appear on movement improve considerably. Lines etched at rest soften rather than disappear.
There is no expected downtime. Avoid strenuous exercise, facial massage and lying flat for around four hours afterwards.
Marionette line fillers are often planned alongside these.
Forehead treatment trades a degree of smoothness against how well your brow lifts, and the right point on that trade-off is different for every face. If forehead lines bother you, the useful conversation is where that point sits for you. Dr Ellie Sateei sees patients at her London clinic.
Our London clinic is located at 91a New Cavendish Street, London, W1W 6XF
We serve patients from London, Kent and the home counties as well as from all over the world. Our London clinic sits in the heart of Marylebone, within easy reach of the West End by tube, while our Sevenoaks clinic in Ightham is moments from the M25 and M26 for patients across Kent.
