I’ve never written a review like this in my life, but while worrying about double eyelid surgery, I got a lot of help from other reviews here, so I decided to write one too
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0. Concerns about my eyes The more I looked into it, the more I realized that what counts as pretty eyes is extremely subjective, so I thought it was important to find a place where my standards and the doctor’s standards matched as closely as possible. I didn’t want anything flashy or heavy-looking, and I was aiming for something natural. Of course, pretty and glamorous eyes are nice too, and best of all, but first I went around for consultations with the top priority being getting rid of my sleepy eyes. Please keep that in mind when reading the rest below.
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1. Double eyelid consultations First of all, I only looked at private clinics with one head doctor.
1-1) Sijeon The reviews were good and I heard they do a lot of revision surgeries, so I waited about two weeks and went for a consultation. It was on a weekday afternoon, but there were really a lot of people in the lobby. I first spoke with the manager, then met the doctor, and then consulted with the manager again. The manager was kind, and the manager shaped the line for me, which looked pretty lol After that I consulted with the doctor, and he barely said anything, with a stance of, “If you ask, I’ll answer.” When I explained my eye concerns, he roughly drew a line for me, but it was such an unexpected line that I was inwardly like, huh?? After that he didn’t really adjust the eyes any further, and the consultation ended in about 3 minutes. It didn’t seem like we talked about much. Anyway, it was a free consultation, and the photo reviews were good, so I did think they would do a good job if I had surgery there, but it didn’t really feel right to me. I couldn’t picture what my eyes would end up looking like. And... my trust had already dropped because I only got to consult an hour later than my scheduled time. Basically: if you come, fine; if not, fine. I was recommended incision + eye correction.
1-2) Igram I really agonized between Sijeon and Igram. Consultation fee: 10,000 won. I think I went after waiting about 3 weeks. The doctor was young and had a very confident style. Personally, it felt very trustworthy. He asked what my eye concerns were and then consulted in a way that felt very detailed. At first he suggested incision + eye correction, then shaped the line and said that because my eyes were uneven, I would probably also need epicanthoplasty. He drew two possible lines, and both were pretty. And while drawing them, he said, “Ah, this line is pretty, right?” so I felt like he also cared about aesthetics. They’re known for doing pretty, glamorous-looking eyes well, and I could see why. He also joked around, and when I was leaving after the consultation he said, “Don’t worry too much~” I personally like that kind of warmth. There was an event where they gave a discount if you shared photos of the eye area. If I had cared more about beauty than correction, I think I would have chosen this clinic.
1-3) Sijeompyo A friend told me about this place after seeing it on YouTube, so I looked it up. I thought I myself would need eye correction, and after hearing this doctor talk about eye correction on YouTube, I trusted him and went.
The building was really old. I thought, what kind of place is this? But once I went in, it was clean.
I didn’t wait long; I think I took photos and went straight into the consultation. He asked what kind of eyes I wanted and whether I had brought any photos. I said I wanted to naturally correct my sleepy eyes. Then the doctor said I made a good choice and explained that my eyes would be difficult to turn into a flashy out-line. The reasons were 1) the space between the eyebrows and eyes is narrow, 2) I have some fat in the upper eyelids, and 3) my eyes are set deep. Even though at other clinics I had heard a lot of “out-line won’t work~,” it felt good to get such a precise analysis. (I had also been to about three other places besides the clinics above.)
After feeling around my eyes a bit, he showed me examples of other people’s eyes. But at this moment! He directly searched patient names and showed them to me... It felt like patients’ eyes were stored in his head as data... that raised my trust a bit. He showed me a case exactly like mine, so I could picture how my eyes would change. (I think he also shaped the line, but I’m fuzzy on that.)
Then he displayed my photo on the monitor and, just like in his YouTube videos, drew marks all over it while explaining. In the end, he said my eyes were the kind with a correct answer. (He said eye correction would be done by removing as much as the eyelid was rolling inward.) At the previous clinics, it mostly felt like the doctors were making aesthetic judgments, saying things like, “Let’s try to make the line pretty~,” but here, this doctor seemed to interpret my eyes and judge the line based on structural criteria. That raised my trust again.
And then he gently turned my eye lid a bit inside out and said, “Don’t have this kind of eye correction done anywhere else. It’s dangerous.” I think he showed me something like lagophthalmos.
He asked if I had any other questions, so I asked, “Is it true that non-incision procedures are easier to loosen than incision procedures?” A previous doctor had said, “We never operate assuming it will loosen,” but this doctor said, “That is true. But in the end, it’s your own choice. You need to know the pros and cons and choose for yourself.”
And also... at other clinics I felt like I was often counseled with the idea of “it’s for sleepy eyes, but still, since it’s a woman’s eye, let’s make it pretty and bigger~,” but here they seemed to place more importance on naturalness and avoiding side effects. I had seen a lot of reviews saying they’re more conservative than other clinics, and it really does seem that way.
There were no special events, and the consultation ended with an estimate for incision + eye correction.
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2. Surgery There were no reviews for Sijeompyo, so... after really agonizing between that place and Igram, I still chose Sijeompyo because I was drawn to it. I scheduled the surgery for about three weeks later.
I arrived at the reservation time, changed clothes without waiting, and met the doctor. I thought there would be a long consultation once I got into the consultation room, but there wasn’t.
Without much talking, he immediately held my face, kept asking me to close and open my eyes, and drew with a pen while shaping two lines. He said he could make them semi-out or in-out for me. He said semi-out could remove more of the sleepy look, but depending on the person, it could feel heavy. He told me to choose one of the two.
I said I didn’t want sausage-like eyes or anything puffy, and he said then in-out would be better, so I went with in-out.
And after finishing the conversation, he quickly left lol
The initial consultation was fairly relaxed, but the surgical consultation actually ended even more quickly. He seems like a brisk person. You can’t give him time to rest. It feels like you have to stack up all your questions and pour them out without any silence.
After the consultation, I went into the operating room, lay down, and the nurses set things up; after waiting a bit, the doctor came in. There seemed to be about three nurses. The doctor spent about 5 minutes shaping the line again while telling me to close and open my eyes.
Then the surgery started. He kept telling me to close and open my eyes while adjusting the line. I felt like he was extremely focused. It felt meticulous (though I’m sure every doctor is like that). He carried out the surgery with that kind of presence where nobody around can interrupt.
After about an hour of surgery, I went straight to the recovery room across the hall. I got IV fluids(?) for about 15 to 20 minutes. The nurses kept coming back about every 5 minutes to check whether I was okay.
Then they gave me an ice pack and medicine, and I was discharged!
-------- 3. After surgery The doctor really did a great job, I think. I had almost no swelling at all and it didn’t hurt one bit. The bruising was only about half the size of a pinky nail at the outer corner of my eye, and there were no yellow bruises...
When I asked people around me, it seems like I’m just the kind of person who doesn’t swell much. I lift weights as a hobby... I don’t drink, smoke, or have coffee, and I’ve been exercising and dieting for three years, so my friends said maybe my blood is clean lol, but honestly I don’t think it was just that. It seems like the doctor’s skill and my constitution matched well.
Anyway, as soon as the stitches came out, I just walked around with bare eyes. And up to now, I’ve been living normally without any issues. I like my eyes, of course. The sleepy look is completely gone, and I don’t have to risk getting sausage-like eyes, so I like that it looks natural.
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Rather than saying this clinic is the absolute best!!!, I think the standards and direction I had in mind for double eyelid surgery matched this clinic well. Honestly, I think the best thing is finding a clinic that suits you well......
I don’t like writing rambling posts, but I got a lot of help here, so I wrote this just in case. If there’s anything problematic, please let me know and I’ll delete or edit it quickly. The end.