Chicago influencer shares tale of bad botox treatment; "I look like Two-Face"

CHICAGO (CBS) -- You can never outrun Father Time, but for those looking to slow him down, they may book an appointment for Botox.

That's what a Chicago woman did, just as she'd done several times before, but one fateful appointment in 2021 is something she and people on the internet are still talking about.

And when you see the photos, you'll see why.

If your Instagram feed is a steady stream of travel goals, fashion deals, and beauty hacks, you may have come across @SomethingWhitty. Whitney Buha is a Chicagoan with a following of 122,000.

"I have been doing the blogging, influencing, Instagram thing for almost six years now," she said.

Her posts are a steady stream of promotions, and a peek into her day-to-day. It's a business where, admittedly, appearances matter. Buha is open about getting some cosmetic touch ups.

"I usually get Botox twice a year; every six months, something like that," she said.

But a regular appointment in Spring of 2021 became anything but.

"I was going to the same injector that I'd been going to for a while. She did those injections, and a few days later I noticed that my eyebrows were a little bit uneven," she said.

She went back, and says the injector tried to help with a few more units, but by then Buha had found herself in situation she felt forced to share.

"There was that initial panic of, 'What's going on? Why is this happening?'" she said.

Because even with the swoop of her hair, there was no hiding the results; a complication that, in the days that followed, widened one eye while drooping the other.

"I'm going to cry," she said in an Instagram story. "I look like Two-Face."

Buha decided to put her pride to the side, and bared all, posting pictures dramatic enough to stop you mid-scroll. She figured she couldn't be the only one stunned this was happening. 

"I started thinking about it, and realized that people didn't know this was a side effect. I didn't know it was a side effect, and decided that I should share what happened to me," she said.

What happened next was a flurry of likes and comments, and calls to other experts. Brittany Croasdell was one of them.

"When I saw her, I knew immediately what I was going to do," Croasdell said.

Croasdell is clinical director at The Fitz, a med spa in Old Town. Her credentials run deep, so much so the companies that make Botox and similar product, Dysport, hire her to train injectors nationwide. Buha tasked her with treating the complication.

"Neuromodulators, like Botox, will do the opposite of what the muscle's intended to do. So we had limited muscle play to try to figure out how I could open up her eye as much as possible," Croasdell said.

Through a series of delicately placed injections by Croasdell herself, and the passage of time, Buha is finally closer to facial symmetry. 

This kind of adverse event is rare. Croasdell thinks Buha's former injector might have lacked familiarity with anatomy.

To try avoid the same fate if you get Botox, Croasdell said you should ask person holding the needle headed for your face what is their certification in? Are they board certified?

"Are they injecting one day a week at a clinic, or are they dedicating their life to this? I think that's the most important is experience," she said.

That's what Buha learned the hard way, but she hopes that's what you remember the next time you book an appointment or scroll past her page.

"I can laugh at it now, looking back, and I can talk to people about it, and tell people what I've learned, and things like that," she said.

She's an unexpected bad Botox educator who lived to post the tale.

Buha says even more than a year later, she's getting messages from people around the world who are experiencing similar complications. Some of those people are even making the trip to Chicago just to come to The Fitz Med Spa to seek the same help she did.