Hi! I had alar base reduction done before Lunar New Year, and I got a lot of help from the information I found in this community, so I wanted to write a review too! This is my first time posting here apart from the introductory greeting, so please forgive me if it feels a little awkward..! (I’m not sure whether the image attached properly)
To start with the conclusion 1. I’m extremely satisfied with the surgery itself!! Every time I look in the mirror, I think I made the right choice 2. There is a scar!! But nobody notices it... they don’t even realize I had surgery..!
I’m really going to write this in full, long detail, so please read it like a diary If you want to skip the process and just see my thoughts or tips, I’ll summarize them at the very bottom, so you can just scroll down!
Since I was little, having large nostrils was a complex of mine. A thumb could totally fit in there, and in elementary school my swimming coach joked that a 500-won coin could probably fit in my nose too ( come to think of it now, was that really something to say to a kid?). I have plenty of other nose-related stories, but if I write them all this post will get way too long, so I’ll leave them out! But I was the kind of person who never even thought about plastic surgery. In middle and high school, I wasn’t very interested in appearance at all, and even after becoming an adult I was like, ah, let’s just live with the face I was born with~. But during COVID, because I wore a mask all the time, my appearance self-esteem suddenly shot up... Since I couldn’t see the features I’d been trying to ignore, I took lots of selfies with my mask on, and even after restrictions were lifted I didn’t want to take it off. Even while working part-time after COVID ended, I absolutely never took off my mask.. I was afraid people would look at my nose and think I was ugly.
This introduction is getting way too long Anyway, I felt like I couldn’t go on like this, so while searching the internet for all kinds of things I found out there was a surgery called alar base reduction, and while looking for information I ended up here in this community. I also joined several other Naver cafes! When you look at alar base reduction reviews, some people only get that surgery, but many also get it together with other nose procedures. People even recommend doing it that way! But I was scared of putting anything into my nose, and as I said above, I just wanted my nostrils to get smaller while keeping the current overall look, so I mostly did a lot of research and chose a clinic that emphasized natural results!
Before reduction
Before reduction
Consultation before surgery: I didn’t want to waste time going to a bunch of clinics, so I did as much research as I could first and chose just one place that seemed good enough for a consultation. I went at my reserved time and the surgeon saw me right away. I thought a consultation would just be like, “I came for alar base reduction!” and then, “I see. If you have surgery, it will look like this,” and that would be the end of it. But the surgeon first asked what I was worried about, so I was a little flustered and said, “Uh,, my nostrils ” and then went through the consultation step by step He also said mine were a bit large (). He explained what my nose shape is like now, how the scar would appear if I had surgery on my nose, what kind of effect I could expect, and roughly shaped the nose with cotton swabs. He told me that if I had surgery, I would likely get a lot of improvement in the nostril-reduction area, which was what I wanted. After the consultation with the surgeon, I talked again with the manager, who explained the scarring in more detail while showing me photos of other patients and how the shape would look. I’d once heard a friend tell a story about going for a plastic surgery consultation and how the consultation manager was really haughty(?), intimidating, and so on, but everyone at the place I went to, from the front desk to the surgeon and the manager, was incredibly kind... I’m the type who tends to just go, oh, I see, rather than asking very detailed questions, so I hadn’t prepared many questions, but they kept asking whether I had any more things I wanted to know, so I ended up asking, oh,, then what about this? and more questions came out. Anyway, I was doing this secretly from my family and wanted to do it before Lunar New Year. So after the consultation, I booked the surgery right there!
The surgery: Once I actually set the date, all kinds of worries suddenly flooded in... Looking at reviews, some people really had severe scars, so what if the scar showed too much, what if the result didn’t turn out how I imagined, and so on... With those thoughts in my head, I arrived at the clinic! Since they said I shouldn’t let water touch it for about a day after surgery, I took all my makeup off and washed my face before going. I got more instructions there and all that... honestly it was three weeks ago so I don’t remember well And I chose local anesthesia! They said if I wanted twilight anesthesia it would cost 50,000 won more, and I’d have to wait until I woke up before leaving, so I chose local anesthesia. But the injections hurt... I think they injected me five times on each side of the nose, and it hurt like hell I thought I handled it well, but after all the shots, tears were coming out of my eyes Good thing they had covered my eyes with a shield, or I would have been unbelievably embarrassed Then the surgery started, and from that point the anesthesia had kicked in, so I just felt kind of swish-swish movements and nothing much else. When we talked about how much to reduce, the surgeon mentioned 3.5 to 4.5 mm. He said 3.5 mm is about the average amount women reduce, and that I could probably go as far as 4.5 mm! But since I said I wanted something natural, he said we should try 3.5 first, look at the shape, and decide from there. So after cutting the tissue, he loosely stitched it up and told me to sit up and look in the mirror. When I looked, they had already wiped the blood off my nose, cheeks, and philtrum, so I was all red and raw Seeing that was a bit shocking; alar base reduction is known as such a simple surgery, right? It gives the impression of being over very quickly? But surgery is still surgery... Lying down on the operating table, the anesthesia, the fact that they cut the tissue and of course there was blood, and then my face looking like someone had spilled nosebleed all over it and smeared it on my face, was a little surprising I looked at my face and went, huh, then looked at the nose shape, and I didn’t like it... I thought, this is screwed. Maybe because I had asked for it to be very natural? It didn’t seem much different, and if anything my nose looked a bit lifted (looking back now, it probably looked lifted because of swelling?) and my nostrils seemed even rounder... I asked them to reduce it a bit more, and the surgeon also said it seemed like he could reduce it further. It had been very large before.. Anyway, they cut it one more time and checked the shape again, and this time I thought, oh, this is okay...? It felt like when I’d previously pinched my nose and done all kinds of ridiculous simulations to see how the shape would look? So I said it seemed fine, and the surgeon said if they reduced it any more, it might not look natural, so they stitched it up like that!
First day after reduction
First day after reduction
After surgery: - Day of surgery to day 2: After surgery they gave me instructions for the following week, prescribed my medicine, and I came home. The surgery ended around my work finishing time, so traffic was insanely bad But you know that feeling? Like if you don’t take your medicine soon, something bad is going to happen... a signal... My body seemed to be sending some kind of message. Eat quickly and take the medicine... otherwise it’s going to hurt like hell or something... So I got home, ate one spoonful of rice, and took the medicine right away; some people say it didn’t hurt at all, and others say it was fine once they took the medicine, but even after taking Tylenol, it still hurt a bit I woke up in the morning feeling the pain as I got up; maybe because they reduced it so much...? Also, I felt like something was stuck under my nose and around my philtrum, so it was hard to open my mouth. I was worried that if I opened my mouth wrong, the stitches would get messed up or the scar would get worse, so I was as careful as possible. I didn’t have many chances to talk, so speaking and laughing were okay, but yawning was really awful... yawning without opening your mouth... how are you even supposed to do that...? I could eat, though slowly, like pecking at birdseed, but brushing my teeth I couldn’t brush properly until day 5 or so^^
- Day 3 to day 5: From this point the pain decreased a lot! Still, because of the foreign-body feeling and occasional pain, I kept taking the medicine regularly. I think this was when I could start washing my face with water, but I was super careful and didn’t apply any basic skincare products at all near my nose. I was worried that if anything got into the operated area, it would get irritated... so the skin around my nose was a mess..^^ And compared with the surgery day and the day right after, I think this was when it was a bit more swollen. I usually don’t notice swelling very well. But this time I felt like the area around my philtrum and nearby had become kind of stiff..? And around day 5, I thought, now!! when talking or eating, the feeling of the stitches pulling tightly had eased a lot, and it seemed to have settled to some extent (wishful thinking;) so I brushed my teeth, but,, when brushing the front teeth, I had to brush the gum area above them too, and I couldn’t do that That area is right below the philtrum, so even if I just tried to lift my upper lip a little with the toothbrush, the skin around the philtrum sent the signal, “that doesn’t seem like it’s going to work”... So I just brushed my tongue
Day 6
Day 6
- Day 6 to before stitch removal: My surgery to stitch-removal day fell during the Lunar New Year holiday, so I scheduled stitch removal for about day 8. From day 6 onward, the pain definitely decreased a lot (it wasn’t completely gone), and because I had a bit more room to breathe, I started obsessing over the scar like crazy... I had already been looking in the mirror and searching the community before, but from day 6 onward I was searching every five minutes and doom-scrolling the community like I’d become mentally unwell. The shape is fine, but what if the scar is severe, I found posts saying some clinics remove stitches after just 3 days, so why do they remove them so late here, I heard late stitch removal leaves stitch marks as scars, what should I do, some clinics prescribe ointment, so why didn’t they give me any?!?! and so on... I read every scar-related post I could find... If I was this worried, I could have contacted the clinic and asked, but the clinic was closed because of the holiday I just kept spinning out in my own imagination until stitch removal day. And the clinic had said that blood can come from the stitches and form scabs, and that wiping them with saline would reduce scarring, so I diligently cleaned with saline! But there was this huge scab on one side. It felt like if I applied enough force, it would come off? I was wondering whether I should wipe it or not...? I decided to wipe it with force, and not only the blood but also the scab came off, so a little blood came out I thought, this is bad... I cleaned it with saline and left it alone... And when washing my face, they told me not to let cleanser or soap touch the surgical area and to only rinse with water? So like I said above, I just did water cleansing on the nose area itself and tried to avoid toner and lotion as much as possible. Because of that, around day 6 the sebum was like it was being harvested..? Have you ever seen sebum rise up when you lightly touch it with a cotton swab? It was like they were standing up out of my pores; disgusting as hell, so I wanted to scrub hard, but I couldn’t, and I could only timidly wipe it with the face pads the clinic gave me;
Crazy sebum on the day stitches were removed
The day stitches were removed
- After stitch removal: The long-awaited day of stitch removal..! I really wanted to get the stitches out quickly and be free from this foreign-body feeling, wash my face properly, use pore strips, and brush my teeth; but after stitch removal, the stitch holes still remain, so they said I should hold off on cleansing washes for about a day, and basic skincare products should wait 2 to 3 days Total despair... Can you not see the sebum on my nose...? And when the stitches are removed, there’s no anesthesia, right?? It stings a little And on one side, there was a fairly big scab inside the nose, and when they wiped that off, a lot of blood came out, so the surgeon pressed it hard with cotton, which burned like crazy; I thought the pain was over, but I still flinched on the operating table before walking out When I looked in the mirror after the stitches were removed, since blood had come out on one side and it had just been removed, the skin under my nose was obviously red and looked clearly like, yeah, someone did something to me, and the incision line was very visible. As for the stitch marks, the area under the nose was so red that I don’t think they were visible at that point. And the spot where the scab inside the nose had been removed looked sunken in. The surgeon said that was just because the scab had come off, so not to worry, and I was actually more concerned about the surgical line itself than that part. The surgeon asked if I liked the shape, said I didn’t need to use scar ointment, but if I wanted to, I could start applying it three days later, told me I’d done well, and left. After that, I took after photos with the manager, got the remaining instructions, said goodbye, and that was it! I was like, what, I don’t need to come to the clinic anymore? Is this really the end? and when I asked the manager, “Is everything done?”, they smiled and said yes and said goodbye.
After that, I washed carefully as instructed, making sure soap didn’t touch it until day 2 or 3! From day 3 onward, I bought Noscarna and have been applying it, and I think I started using pore strips around day 6 But because I was trying to clean the skin on my nose without irritating the pores as much as possible, the sebum is still running wild... When will my nose come back... Also, that week after stitch removal coincided with my period, so I got a ton of pimples on my nose; I was more shocked by the six pimples on my nose and philtrum than by the scar, so I was busy worrying about that; And I said I had the surgery secretly from my family. Our usual schedules are all different, so if we wanted to avoid each other, we could. So while the stitches were still in, I tried to avoid them and did, and I also avoided them on the day the stitches were removed and the day after, but around day 3 I happened to face them and talk. At that point, I thought the area under my nose still looked noticeably red, and that if they saw my face they’d notice, so I was thinking I’d have to tell them about the surgery. But they didn’t notice it; I was so flustered; I mean, my nose felt so much smaller and the area under it felt so obvious to me, but none of my family members, not even my older sister, noticed the surgery, let alone mentioned a scar My parents I can kind of understand, but even my sister didn’t notice... I’m glad they didn’t notice, but also...? It kind of feels like a reality check too..?
Makeup on day 18 after surgery
Makeup on day 18 after surgery
It has been just under three weeks since my surgery as of yesterday, and I even wore makeup and went out without a mask and had a great time! Aside from occasional stinging, I have no pain at all, and there’s no discomfort when eating or brushing my teeth. I can even put my tongue under the philtrum^^ I’m just being careful when I laugh too hard or yawn. The stitch marks are also becoming a little visible as the wound area dries and the swelling goes down, but unless you look really, really closely, the stitch scars are almost invisible! I’m planning to keep applying scar ointment and take care of it going forward.
Thoughts
Now that I’ve written it out, it’s so long... What I felt through this surgery is that this is truly a surgery for self-satisfaction, and that since everyone’s idea of beauty is different and everyone’s ideal nose shape is different, you need to think carefully before deciding..! Just looking at my own nose after surgery, there will definitely be people who think, “I had surgery and it’s still so big..?” But because my eyes are a bit far apart, I really like how it looks now. If I had reduced it more, I think the whole face might have looked pinched. I also searched for tons of review photos and read many posts from people wondering whether they should even get alar base reduction, and there were definitely cases where I thought some noses already looked so pretty and didn’t seem to need it at all, yet the person was still worried, and there were also many posts where the after photos looked almost no different to me but the person was very satisfied. I think some people reading this might feel that way about my post too Especially the first type: I saw many posts from people who compared their nose to celebrities or other people whose nose looks pretty when you look only at the “nose” itself, without considering what suits their own face shape, and then felt dissatisfied with their own nose. For example, Min Hyo-rin or NewJeans’ Minji? But there were also a lot of cases where people followed that look blindly without considering harmony with their own face and ended up regretting it... When deciding on surgery, make sure to compare it with your own face and think carefully. And I think this surgery is more about nostril reduction than alar base reduction.. That’s how it felt in other review photos too, and I also wanted nostril reduction more than anything. For people whose nostrils are small but whose alar base is thick, this surgery may actually have the opposite effect. I saw reviews saying the shape became strange or breathing became difficult. Since this is a surgery that cuts away tissue, it can’t really be reversed, so please, please think carefully before deciding!
Choose the clinic according to the direction you want too! In my case, because I really only wanted nostril reduction, the clinic I chose suited me perfectly. They didn’t bring up any other surgeries at all and focused only on alar base reduction during the consultation, and they didn’t even bring up the “after” part of reviews.. this is just a genuine review I wrote voluntarily. But if you want to change the overall nose shape dramatically or have another goal, I hope you do even more research and find the clinic that fits you best!
To summarize
1. As mentioned above, clearly figure out your goal and find a clinic that suits you 2. Definitely do a pore strip before surgery..^^ Think of it as a few days where you won’t be able to wash properly and clean your face well in advance.. 3. Scars definitely do form except in a few cases, so think carefully about that before deciding 4. Consider the clinic’s holidays when booking surgery. At least until day 2 or 3 after surgery, it seems better if you can contact the clinic. 5. After surgery, don’t worry too much. Constantly staring in the mirror or touching it only makes it look more obvious and can irritate it. I think the best thing is to deliberately focus on something else and try not to dwell on it until it heals well. (Though it’s hard..)
It got way longer than I expected..! It was my first surgery, so I was half worried and half excited, but I’m very satisfied! I hope this post is helpful or interesting to everyone here, and I hope everyone gets a satisfying result whether they have surgery or not. Thank you!
+) Oh, and before the surgery starts, they trim the nose hair for you..? It was the first time someone had looked at my nose so closely and touched it, so I felt so awkward and had a hard time not laughing... I was insanely embarrassed