Hello
Since I paid for it myself, I’ll really only post one before-and-after photo of my nose.
My nose stood out a lot, so for anonymity^^
There are so many reviews from people who had great results, but there are individual differences, and based on my current feelings and
there aren’t many reviews or firsthand experiences about male rhinoplasty, so I’m being a bit nosy, but I wanted to write one.
I just kept reading multiple reviews and wasting way too much time
This is a summary of the feelings I had while choosing, and personally, because of work + family + childcare,
there’s a 100% chance I won’t be able to do this again after this one time, so I searched whenever I had time.
I ended up doing it so much that my head felt like it was going to split, so I’m writing this in the hope that even 1 minute of it helps someone.
I also struggled with the questions and stress people around me had about my nose, so this is my first time writing something like this, but I’ll ramble a bit.
The post looks like it’ll get long, so I’m using a somewhat brief style^^
1. Choosing the clinic - This was just... the results changed completely depending on the search terms I used on a community or an app - No matter which clinic you search, there are good posts and bad posts - Even when looking at apps and reviews, there are too many people who did really well. There are definitely people for whom revision is borderline, but going to a clinic where a successful person went doesn’t mean I’ll do well too. Still, I had an image I wanted, so I looked through lots of reviews - The problem is that there are plenty of comments and inquiry posts, but the amount of review posts varies by at least several times to dozens of times depending on the clinic A place with lots of reviews is, at least, either advertising or has many successful cases, but someone still actually had surgery there, so I don’t see it negatively - Still, since I’m a man, the clinics that come up when searching for male rhinoplasty are limited, so I thought the good clinics are probably good, and diversified my search terms (nose surgery, revision rhinoplasty, straight nose, etc.) - I also considered function, but they said I didn’t need functional surgery, so I prioritized board-certified plastic surgeons - This may be a bias, but I preferred clinics run by one or two doctors - Even if it’s advertising, I made a list of clinics that seemed to have nose shapes I liked in review posts + comments + places that kept coming up in posts - Then I went to each clinic’s website and looked at the real before-and-after photos. In reviews, the people who did well often had makeup mixed in, and the vibe felt different for men and women - When I actually looked at the review photos on the websites, they were generally similar, but there were still clinics with lines that felt closer to what I wanted - Some clinics also show basic revision rhinoplasty prices in the app (you can probably just add 2 million KRW here - explained later) - The problem was that because of work + family, I had to cram all the consultations into one day, so I called the clinics on my list and booked only the ones that had available time - If I had plenty of time, it wouldn’t matter, but since I had limits, I checked travel time with the fast route feature, and 5 places were possible, but only 4 were actually bookable, so I reserved those - Whether it’s 10 places or 100, the explanation would probably be similar anyway (in fact, the main points of the consultations at all 4 places were similar, and the rest seemed to reflect personal preference) - So the final choice was made because the explanation was detailed, the director seemed confident, and I got the impression of a stubbornness that looked good in a way; personally, I thought that was a sign of confidence - The clinic where I had surgery gave the most detailed explanation
2. Final clinic: Ahn Plastic Surgery Clinic - Don’t ask about the other plastic surgery clinics^^ They were all good. - Consulted at 4 places that day, and if the consultation had 5 points each, usually 3 to 4 overlapped; the rest felt like the directors were sharing their own experience one by one while explaining - Reason for choosing: first, the explanation was the most detailed. There’s a kind of aura you feel from a person, and I’d put it as having a strong sense of conviction, though there could be differences in how people see it Personally, it just felt like an explanation based on confidence Since I got that feeling, I interpreted it positively - That was a side note. The actual reaction when I first showed my nose to the directors was one thing: the nose is too high, too upturned, and too short. In short, visually it’s burdensome; the nose is prominent enough to draw attention (Even when close acquaintances first met me, and even now, they say that in conversation their eyes are drawn only to my nose) I asked about the nostrils, and they said the nose already needs to be lowered - They said the silicone length needs to be adjusted in order to lower the tip height, and that my nose was originally a short nose, but it likely became even more upturned during the surgery - They wanted to lower the tip as much as possible so the nostrils wouldn’t show. But in reality, completely hiding the nostrils from the front isn’t possible (to be exact, even people around me don’t have nostrils that are totally invisible from the front; the important thing is the degree) - Since the nose is upturned and short, they said they would lower it as much as possible. Because it tends to go back toward its original shape, lowering it as much as possible is fine even if it rises a little later - They said the tip needs strong support, so using costal cartilage was recommended (they said it could be done with septal cartilage or cartilage alone if possible, but from the many posts I read, costal cartilage seems like not just an option but a choice, and if it is stronger than cartilage, then using it is fine and not burdensome) * Important here - For me, the difference between donated rib cartilage and autologous rib cartilage is: 1. It’s from my own body, so it feels safe (autologous rib cartilage), while donated tissue feels uncomfortable because it came from a cadaver (donated rib cartilage) 2. Considering future side effects, autologous rib cartilage is preferable; the downside is the price difference - There is a price difference between autologous and donated cartilage. But if the chance of side effects is higher, even if the difference is somewhat large, it’s not the end of the world, just the kind of money you could cover by skipping a few drinks or not buying a few clothes - Personally, I naturally wanted to save money and preferred donated rib cartilage, but if they said the risk of side effects was high, I was willing to switch to autologous rib cartilage - But the director put it bluntly - Donated rib cartilage is the most expensive material, and there isn’t much of it (there are also places that only do autologous rib cartilage) - Why are you okay with using silicone, but worried about donated rib cartilage? / If the comparison is autologous rib cartilage vs donated rib cartilage, then autologous rib cartilage is the one to choose, but if you look at donated rib cartilage by itself, it’s fine - Honestly, if donated rib cartilage really caused serious inflammation and problems in Korea, I think this country would obviously not use it, so that made sense to me - Even I thought it was absurd to say I’d insert silicone but oppose donated rib cartilage - And recently the supply of donated rib cartilage hasn’t been smooth, but just then one arrived, and the director smiled and said that’s just how it is, then moved on - I laughed too. Whether it was marketing or whatever didn’t matter. I had been considering donated rib cartilage, and if it’s available, that’s good; if not, then autologous rib cartilage works - For men, nose lines are mostly already set. They said to bring photos if I had a shape I wanted, but every nose I looked at was just straight, so I had no particular feeling
3. Summary of the surgery - Upturned tip - A male nose, but with a semi-curved feminine-style bridge line - The nostrils show, but the bridge to the tip is too high (I showed reference photos and said I’d prefer something not higher than that, and they said any nose would be lower than my current one, so I just went “ah~” and moved on) - The goal is to lengthen the nose as much as possible; because my nose is short, they said they would lower it as much as possible first - There was also a slight curve in the nose, and they said they would straighten that too
4. Post-op review (there are so many reviews and every case is different, so I’ll keep this light) ** Surgery day to day 7 - On the day of surgery, I was just groggy after waking from anesthesia - Day 1 to 2 - I had cotton in my nose and lots of bandages, so it was uncomfortable + they said it’s best to sleep sitting up, so I just adjusted the sofa backrest and slept, or maybe I just dozed off, I’m not even sure - Day 3 to 5 - People say it feels refreshing after the cotton is removed, but that seems relative. Even after removing the cotton, my nose was still so swollen that I could only breathe through my mouth. Even now at around 2 weeks, it still feels like I’m breathing through my mouth more than my nose (my mouth gets extremely dry when I wake up, so I brush my teeth right after getting up. Still, after 10 days, I was breathing through my nose during the daytime) On days 2 to 3, the swelling around the eyes and nose was enormous, really uncomfortable, so I just rested at home leaning back From days 3 to 5, the swelling moved downward and my cheeks started looking puffy; the big eye swelling went away If I had to go to work, I think I could have endured it from around day 5, but if possible, it seems better to have surgery on Saturday and rest thoroughly until the following Sunday Daily life is less uncomfortable that way ** The important thing here is that I normally wear glasses, but I was told I couldn’t wear them, so I taped the glasses frame to 3M tape so it wouldn’t touch the bridge of my nose and wore them (I used this after enduring for 3 days because I got too dizzy). Even then, the focus wasn’t accurate so I got dizzy and used doctor nose glasses - Day 7 - I visited the clinic and had the splint removed. This is where the first event happened (maybe because my skin was weak, removing the tape caused a skin problem. I searched like crazy and couldn’t find any review like this; I only found exactly one question with the same issue, so it seems really rare) The director also said they needed to check it, and I was really worried that day too, but since it didn’t seem like something that would change based on what I did, I just got the treatment they provided, heard the instructions, and went home (the original plan was to visit again 3 days later, but because of work I went back 10 days later) - The skin issue on day 7 really bothered me, but it was a difficult situation and healing had to come first, so I focused on recovery. It still doesn’t seem to be a problem - I mentioned the uneven nostrils and the tip height, and they said the shape looks different because there is still swelling, and that even before surgery the two sides were shaped differently, but swelling makes it stand out more. They said this would improve as the swelling goes down (I had read a lot of reviews so I roughly knew this in my head, but I still wanted to hear it directly from the surgeon), and the tip is like that because of swelling now and will drop a little more as it goes down
Around 2 weeks - Overall, I’m satisfied with the nose shape My wife also says I look softer now. Before, because of my nose, I looked a little fierce or strong, and my nose drew attention first, but now that that’s gone, I look gentler and the attention goes to my whole face. She said I did well - I was complimented for the first time in a while!!!
From the side, there’s clearly no rounded curved line anymore, just a straight descent. The tip differs depending on the photo angle, and it’s hard to match the before-and-after photo angles exactly, so I’m just uploading the photos The actual feeling is good. When I look in the mirror, I think, what exactly changed? But the overall impression is that attention no longer goes straight to my nose I don’t like selfies, but even when I take one, it looks pretty normal Of course, I still have to look at the one-month and three-month marks + any other changes, but since the big swelling has gone down and I can roughly see the line now, I’m posting this If the tip lowers just a little more and the remaining swelling goes down, I’m looking forward to getting the image I want
Honestly, when I see reviews of really successful male nose jobs, mine may not be comparable yet, but even at the same clinic, results vary widely, and I don’t think the same result can come out for everyone. I don’t think surgery automatically turns everyone into a perfect handsome man; I prioritize personal satisfaction I’m posting this because, personally, the satisfaction part is higher than the dissatisfaction part
5. Surgery cost: the basic revision rhinoplasty price in the app was listed as 2.18 million KRW. Extra costs are added depending on whether donated rib cartilage or autologous rib cartilage is used. If autologous rib cartilage is used, the price is not very different from the other three clinics; usually, if autologous rib cartilage is used, you can think of it as starting from the mid-4 million KRW range Donated rib cartilage is a bit cheaper, but I can’t mention the exact cost, so I can’t answer that. It is, of course, lower than autologous rib cartilage
I just posted my own feelings, thoughts, and details like this. I don’t know if it will help, but after carrying a pretty big stress for several years, I finally made up my mind and did it. I also felt even more desperate, so I’m writing this in case there are others like me who have been worrying about their nose and might find it helpful. If I showed my nose photos, the clinic would probably recognize me too. How many men have a curved feminine nose like this? I hope everyone succeeds^^