Hi everyone,
I started reading here in 2018 or 19. After reading tons of threads, I went to The Face Dental for 2-jaw surgery with Dr. Lee, and got an amazing result that changed my life. Since the reviews here helped me so much, I wanted to give back by writing one of my own. Hopefully this can help someone the way other reviews helped me. I’m in Korea right now and am updating this in mostly real time.
A few years ago, I got double eyelid surgery on natural double eyelids at WOOA, which didn’t go well. They gave me nonincisional (I was misled about what I was getting) and the stitches came undone in a year. I guess it was a good thing the result wasn’t permanent, because the look was very artificial and didn’t harmonize with my features or aesthetic anyway. Think huge lid space like Jing Tian’s sad frog eyes.
It was so hard to do makeup on those eyes I completely gave up on it. This time I’m back and determined to get a good outcome.
Consultation recap
Everyone here recommends finding smaller clinics locals go to vs. big hospitals that spend tons of money advertising to foreigners for quality and price reasons, so I asked my Korean friend for help choosing a shortlist of clinics. I told her I wanted a super dolly influencer look, not a natural one (since I already have natural double eyelids). I was looking for revisional incisional double eyelids, lateral canthoplasty, and epicanthoplasty. She sent my photos to some clinics and got their feedback, and together we decided on which clinics I’d consult with. I told her I had a bad experience with a big name so I wanted smaller ones, but her research led her to a mix of big foreigner-focused hospitals and small local clinics, which was interesting.
Wannabe
The doctor said I don’t need the lateral and epi because it would give me droopy eyes, and that I wouldn’t have dramatic results after incisional. I wanted a dramatic result so we ruled out Wannabe.
Girin
My friend didn’t have much to say about Girin, but I was super interested in them because their B+A lateral canthoplasty photos looked better than anyone's. Sometimes the lateral canthoplasty looks unnatural because the skin is kind of rolled in, but Girin’s work was so clean. The pics on @girin_after_ were really good and I liked how they weren’t all filtered selfies.
Premier
My friend said they are good but expensive. We ruled out Premier because of price.
Naturalism
I loved their ig pics and aesthetic and they were initially my first choice based on the prettiness of the eyes on their Instagram. I liked the non-filtered B+As and the quantity of them, which showed consistency in their skills.
Dress
They are apparently very affordable and are good at the dolly influencer look
Iwell
Another clinic with the dolly influencer look. I loved their Instagram examples since the eyes were very dramatic. The B+A pics showed transformations, not just enhancements, which is what I was looking for.
I was already aware of Wannabe, Naturalism, Premier, and Girin from years of reading this board as they are big clinics.
After discussing with my friend, she booked me consults at Naturalism, Iwell, Girin, and Dress (to be visited in that order).
Girin has English translators but the other clinics said I needed to bring my own, so I hired Ryan (kakao id Ryankim13) to help.
Ryan and I met at the Starbucks under Naturalism and discussed my goals, and then we went up for the consult. I was really excited for this consult based on the B+As I saw, but the doctor said my eyes were too droopy to get a good result from double eyelid surgery alone. He recommended a forehead lift to lift the droopiness. I know my upper eyelid skin is super droopy and I knew a forehead lift would work, but it seemed like overkill. It’s like doing liposuction to lose 10 pounds when you can just eat less and move more, yeah it would work but there should be a less invasive option. The forehead lift would also move my hairline back a centimeter, which would give me a low cranial top (look up Jennie cranial top to see what I mean). My cranial top isn’t high to begin with. I was unwilling to mess with my hair proportions so Naturalism was out.
Then we went to see my zygoma surgeon, and then we went to Iwell. Most places have books of b+a pics in the waiting rooms and I enjoyed looking through Iwell’s because the results were really dramatic. It made me think even if I had droopy eyes I could still get a big change with eyelid surgery alone, vs what Wannabe and Naturalism said. There were many girls in the books who had fatty droopy eyes like mine. However, the consultant’s high pressure sales tactics were a turnoff. She told us I needed to have surgery THAT DAY because the doctor would go to a conference tomorrow and he wouldn’t be back until after my zygoma surgery (I had to do eyes before zygoma so the zygoma swelling wouldn’t affect how the surgeons perceived my natural eyes). After the consultation we met with the doctor, who didn’t say anything about needing to do the surgery urgently because he would be leaving soon. The situation could have been true but was’t totally believable. The doctor had a good demeanor and he didn’t tell me my eyes were too droopy to do anything with but I didn’t want to deal with those high pressure sales and Ryan was obviously against it too. I’m upset about how WOOA gave me nonincisonal when I thought I was getting an incisional surgery and I didn’t want to get in another situation where I had doubts about the things I was hearing.
Girin was next. I knew Girin had good English translators from here but I still recommend bringing your own translator because they will be on your side (vs Girin’s translators who are neutrally communicating). The consultants and doctors are on the same side so it helps to have someone who advocates for you. There were a LOT of staff there. The reception desk had 7-8 people behind it and the waiting room was pretty full. The consultant assigned to me had super pretty eyes so I was like give me what she has! Girin also provided a native English speaking translator (they seem to be foreigners instead of Koreans who learned English, so that’s why the communication is better). Ryan explained what I wanted to the consultant who took a bunch of notes, and then the doctor who did double eyelids (Dr. Park) came in to talk to us. After that, the doctor who did canthoplasty (Dr. Song) came in. Girin takes canthoplasty so seriously they have a doctor who only does canthoplasty. I was surprised two surgeons would do my eyes but not in a bad way.
This consultation experience really impressed me. Everyone involved - the consultant, Girin’s translator, and the two doctors - had a very high sense of professionalism that came through in all their interactions and actions. I have a personal goal I’m trying to achieve through looking better and it felt like people involved took me seriously when listening to my goal. They took me seriously when I was talking about the aesthetics I liked. I liked how the consultant and doctors just listened as I talked instead of saying your eyes are too droopy for this to work. But they also didn’t overpromise and say of course we can do it it’s so easy let’s go operate right now, which is the gist of what happened at WOOA (and they didn’t succeed!). They weren’t negative but they weren’t high pressure sales positive either, they just talked about the technical aspects of why they would do to make certain outcomes happen. There was a lot of drawing as the surgeon and I went back and forth about stuff like shape, height, etc. It was so professional. I keep repeating that because it helped with my decision. This was the longest and most technical consult and I felt like I could trust them so we ended up confirming with Girin there. I’ve talked to a bunch of clinics and some seemed like they’re not interested in having me as a customer while others seemed way too interested in getting my money, but the attitudes of Girin’s staff felt appropriate the whole time. I canceled my Dress consult that was scheduled the next day (even though Dress is literal steps from Girin so it’s easy to go there).
Ryan also thought I could make my deposit now and skip my Dress consult the next day. This was a point in Girin’s favor because it actually negatively impacts Ryan - he charges by the hour so the more consults he attends, the more money he earns. However, he indicated he thought Girin was a good choice knowing this would make him less money. This shows he has good character - he was truly looking out for me and not himself, and he thought I had found a good clinic. I highly recommend reaching out to him for help with translation and price negotiations!
Day of surgery recap
Girin told me I would be in the clinic from 1-9 pm, which shocked me, since that seems like a super long time for a double eyelid surgery. People are always saying DES is simple. For my previous (unsuccessful) DES at WOOA I was in and out in 2 hours. As I wrote above, Girin uses two surgeons for DES + lateral canthoplasty cases, and they wait a few hours between the first operation (eyelid line) and the next (cantho), explaining the delay.
You’re not going to feel like you’re there for 8 hours because you’ll be passed out from the drugs.
I felt reassured that Girin was spending so much time on just a “simple” DES.
Consults are done on the 8th floor of their building but the surgical center is the 7th floor. After getting to the 7th floor, an in-house translator met me and helped me store my stuff and get changed. Then we went into a consultation room for a final discussion of my goals. The doctors came and saw me one more time too. Then it was time for surgery!
I got on the operating table and Dr. Park used a marker to mark up my eyelids. He showed me what it looked like in a mirror. (Honestly, the markings already looked good haha.) My natural double eyelid crease has an endpoint that points down, which I don’t like as it makes me look old. I asked Dr. Park to make it go to the side instead of downwards. (A translator came into the operating room with me so I could communicate easily.) He said it would be difficult but that he would do it and made more markings on the sides of my eyelids where he would cut. I again felt reassured my wishes weren’t getting struck down immediately because “your eyes are droopy it’s difficult” - yes, my eyes are droopy, which is why I wanted surgery to fix the droopiness…
After the sedation drugs hit I couldn’t remember much, but there was no pain. I don’t remember the lateral canthoplasty.
When I woke up, I was in a recovery room. I stayed there for a while napping. The patient next to me had had something bigger done and was having a hard time. Their Chinese translator stayed by their side and sounded like she was trying hard to comfort them. Since Girin is a big hospital they probably have a variety of languages they work in - I know Indonesian is one.
My eyes hurt when I opened them because of the epicanthoplasty stitches. They scratched my eyeball and the only way to get rid of the feeling was to keep my eyes closed. The swelling pushed them into my eyes too. This feeling lasted for several days and I kept my eyes closed as much as I could to avoid it. It was super boring but I listened to audiobooks.
My face is super swollen but I can tell that the eyelid incision is neat and my eyes are longer from the canthoplasty.
might just add them to my list.