Most people need between 16 and 32 units of Daxxify for horizontal forehead lines, depending on sex and muscle size. Women typically receive 16 to 24 units in the forehead, while men usually need 24 to 32 units. These numbers are separate from the frown lines between your eyebrows, which require their own dose.
Forehead Lines vs. Frown Lines
When people say “forehead,” they often mean two different treatment areas, and each one has its own unit count. The horizontal lines that run across your forehead when you raise your eyebrows are treated in the frontalis muscle. The vertical “11” lines between your brows (called glabellar lines) are treated in a different set of muscles closer to the bridge of your nose.
Daxxify’s FDA approval and recommended dose of 40 units specifically covers glabellar frown lines, split into five injection points of 8 units each. Forehead lines are treated off-label, meaning your injector determines the dose based on clinical experience rather than a standardized label recommendation. In practice, forehead dosing is well established and widely performed.
Typical Unit Ranges by Sex
Early real-world data published in Aesthetic Surgery Journal Open Forum provides a useful breakdown. For the glabellar area, men typically receive 36 to 44 units and women receive 28 to 36 units. For the forehead (frontalis), men typically receive 24 to 32 units and women receive 16 to 24 units. If you’re treating both areas in the same session, a woman might receive roughly 44 to 60 total units and a man might receive 60 to 76 total units.
Your injector may land above or below these ranges. Factors that push the number higher include stronger muscles, deeper lines at rest, and a larger forehead surface area. People who are new to neurotoxins or have finer lines often start on the lower end.
How Daxxify Units Compare to Botox
If you’re coming from Botox, you might try to convert your usual dose. This isn’t straightforward. The FDA label explicitly states that Daxxify units are specific to its own formulation and cannot be directly converted to units of any other botulinum toxin product. That said, clinicians in practice have reported using roughly 2 to 2.4 Daxxify units for every 1 unit of Botox in the forehead. So if you typically get 10 units of Botox across your forehead, your Daxxify dose might fall in the range of 20 to 24 units. Your provider will calibrate based on your response rather than relying on a fixed conversion.
Why Daxxify Lasts Longer
The main reason people consider Daxxify over other neurotoxins is duration. Traditional options like Botox typically last three to four months. Daxxify uses a synthetic stabilizing peptide instead of the human serum albumin found in every other botulinum toxin product on the market. This peptide carries a strong positive charge that bonds tightly to the toxin molecule and helps anchor it to nerve endings at the injection site. The result is a longer effect from the same treatment session.
In the SAKURA clinical trials, which enrolled over 600 participants, about 74% of patients achieved significant improvement in frown lines at the four-week mark compared to essentially 0% with placebo. Many patients maintained results for six months or longer, roughly doubling the interval between appointments compared to conventional neurotoxins.
What to Expect After Treatment
Initial results from Daxxify typically appear within two to three days, which is slightly faster than Botox (which often takes four to seven days to kick in). Full results usually settle in by two weeks.
The most common side effects are headache and reactions at the injection site, including redness, swelling, or tenderness. Less common issues include drooping of the upper eyelid or slight facial asymmetry, both of which are temporary and resolve as the product wears off. Eyelid drooping is more likely when the product migrates from the injection site, which is why experienced injectors place forehead injections at least a finger’s width above the brow bone.
Cost Considerations
Daxxify generally costs more per unit than Botox. Expect to pay roughly $15 to $25 per unit of Daxxify compared to $10 to $20 per unit for Botox. For a forehead treatment of 20 units, that puts the session cost somewhere between $300 and $500. The higher per-unit price is partially offset by fewer appointments per year. If you currently get Botox three to four times annually and switch to Daxxify twice a year, the annual cost may end up comparable or even lower depending on your provider’s pricing.
Many practices price Daxxify by the session rather than by the unit, so ask your provider for a total cost estimate before treatment. Some offer the forehead and frown lines as a bundled treatment, which can change the per-unit math.