As Barack Obama prepares to take that long car ride to the inaugural platform, surrounded by hundreds of thousands of people, it will help him to know what kind of audience will be greeting him. Will the audience be full of young, enthusiastic supporters, their faces shining with youth and vigor? Will the audience be full of parents and grandparents, showing their children and grandchildren the beauty of democracy, their lined faces beaming with pride? Or will the people be older, wiser politicos and insiders, their faces frozen, puffy and waxy with cynical, non-Hope-y, pre-inaugural Botox and Restylane injections? Probably thousands from all three categories.

To heck with Champagne, break out the Botox. It’s inauguration party time.

Washington, D.C.-area cosmetic dermatologists, and skin experts in other major cities, say despite the sagging economy, requests for quickie cosmetic fixes, such as Botox and microdermabrasion, have picked up during the last few weeks as people pretty-up for inaugural fetes.

“We have been absolutely swamped since the election with people desiring rejuvenation procedures for the upcoming inauguration,” says Washington, D.C., cosmetic dermatologist Tina Alster.

“My normal load for cosmetic procedures has doubled, except for hyaluronic acid fillers — Perlane and Restylane — which have almost tripled,” reports cosmetic and laser surgeon Hema Sundaram, who runs two offices in the Washington, D.C., area.

Despite a 2008 survey released last week by The American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery that revealed almost 96% of cosmetic surgeons were concerned about the economic downturn and that 79% had already felt its effects, many patients, like interior designer Jan Lynch, 59, says tough times haven’t put the breaks on her preparations.

“My motivation is to look the very best I can for such a historical event. I’ve flown in to D.C. from California for this,” says Lynch, who will attend the swearing-in ceremony as well as a black-tie ball with her husband.

Lynch says she stopped by Sundaram’s office this weekend for cosmetic treatment, which included Botox and hyaluronic acid fillers. Sundaram’s patients include men, but are mostly women over 35 who include Washington socialites, professionals in politics who will work and mingle socially with the Obamas, and others attending satellite inauguration events.

Journalists, politicians, lobbyists and lawyers are among Alster’s clientele. “They have all come in at once,” she says.

The trend isn’t only occurring inside the Beltway, according to skin experts in other cities.
Cosmetic dermatologist Jeffrey Dover, of Chestnut Hill, Mass., a Boston suburb, says inauguration-bound patients have been “queuing up” at his office. “They’re asking for no-downtime procedures to look their best for the festivities.”

Leslie Baumann, director of the Cosmetic Medicine and Research Institute at the University of Miami, in Miami, Fla., says, “We were swamped this week. Some were going to the inauguration in D.C. But I saw many going to inauguration parties in Miami.” Many are men in their 50s and 60s, Baumann says.

New York City cosmetic dermatologist Cheryl Karcher says she’s seen an upswing in inauguration-related business at her Park Avenue practice in recent weeks, too. Karcher says she treated one group of young women planning to travel together. “That was fun. They all got peels, Botox, fillers.”

From USA Today

I don’t understand this at all. Do these people think that Barack Obama will get judgy about some forehead lines? Or do all of these people hope to get some inaugural booty calls, thus they want to look “refreshed”? I found the USA Today link on Wonkette, where they were comically theorizing that Obama was blowing his $170 million inaugural budget on Botox and outdoor toilets. They might not be too far off – have you seen Joe Biden forehead lately? He’s looking… Kidman-esque. I thought he was going to bust something on Oprah as he tried to raise his eyebrows.

Barack Obama and Joe Biden are shown on 10/29/09 at a rally in Sunrise, Florida. Credit: WENN. Other images below credit: Oprah.com