I don't have pre-op photos, so I'll leave my review in text only ㅠ
At first, I just vaguely thought I'd probably need to do something to the bones of my face, and I was so ignorant that I didn't even know the difference between contouring and double jaw surgery. Then I watched one YouTube video, got suddenly obsessed, and ended up going through with it.
Sigh.. I shouldn't have watched that video. To be honest, I don't completely regret it, but I don't feel fully satisfied either. It's somewhere around half regretful, half glad I did it.
In the first place, since my face shape wasn't really the problem, there wasn't much effect before and after surgery, and the most important thing is that no one could tell ㅠ
I went through a lot of hardship, spending a lot of money and using up all my vacation days, and compared with that, um... I'm not sure the effect was worth it ㅠ
Of course my face did become a bit slimmer, but um, even my parents can't tell ㅠㅠ
That's enough complaining. If someone else is going to get contouring surgery, I'll write down the things I really want to say and my personal experience after surgery.
=================== Things I want to say before you do it =========================
1. The dramatic effect is not as noticeable as you might think When you see review posts where contouring went well, you start thinking, oh, will I become like that too? I thought the same and went ahead, but the effect is not as big as you'd expect ㅠ
Of course, it does give the feeling that your face shape becomes cleaner and more refined, but it's still basically the same face ㅠ
First of all, if you have fat, even if bone is shaved down, the fat covering it makes the effect much smaller, so losing weight is important. After losing weight, if the bone shape is still a big problem, then I recommend doing it.
In my case too, my cheekbones were only slightly prominent, and my jaw was more like something I wished were a bit sharper, not something that was absent.
I think that's probably the case for most people.
People who clearly have no cheekbones or a weak chin will of course see a huge effect, but for most people, after doing the eyes and nose, they end up thinking, is there anything else I can improve? and then look into contouring.
Just looking around me, after people did their eyes and nose, there wasn't much else to change, so they turned to contouring, and I saw a lot of friends who seemed similar to me, where it didn't look like it would have a big effect.
2. Assuming the effect is not dramatic, you need to think about whether you can accept the side effects Of course, after contouring, your face shape becomes more refined, so it is true that you look better than before surgery.
But the reason people regret it and try to stop others is really the side effects.
It costs a considerable amount of money, so that can also feel wasteful, but money isn't really the main issue, right? (At least it wasn't for me.)
The representative side effect of contouring that everyone knows about is sagging skin.
Everyone probably already knows the explanation. Because the tissue is detached, even if it heals and reattaches, it won't reattach perfectly, and since the space once occupied by bone disappears, the skin has no choice but to droop. If you look into contouring even a little, you can learn that much.
People who still decide to go ahead with contouring are doing so because, even while accepting sagging, they want a smaller, prettier face.
But honestly, if you've had eye surgery, you know: how much bigger does an inner corner surgery really make your eyes? ㅠ
Contour surgery is the same ㅠ It only moves things by a few millimeters at most. It doesn't magically turn you into a celebrity face shape ㅠ
Once it's done, you realize the effect isn't that big, but the surgery is already over, so from that point on the stress about sagging skin begins.
You just keep thinking it'll get worse as you age, and wonder why you even did it.. Those thoughts just stay in your head ㅠ
So you really have to be aware of this before going in.
Also, the sensation in the jaw area doesn't fully return to how it was before, so it keeps bothering you.
Of course, it's not something that makes daily life hugely inconvenient, but food keeps spilling, and sometimes I can't control my saliva and it leaks out.
People who've had it done will know. The doctor definitely explains this side effect too, but at the time you think, well, if it makes me prettier, I can probably accept that much.
The important thing is that if the results aren't dramatic after surgery, then all you'll think about are the side effects you were told about, and that's when the stress starts.
So I recommend contouring only to people who really think, I can accept these side effects to get a slightly more refined face shape! or people who already know dramatic results will happen. (I think this part can be self-diagnosed. People like that probably would have considered contouring before eye and nose surgery in the first place.)
3. A natural shape If you get a consultation, you'll understand, but people who are considering contouring usually have cheekbones or a jaw that is too strong or too little, so they often make excessive requests in the opposite direction.
For example, if your cheekbones are a little prominent and you worry that your face looks wide and large, you try to reduce them as much as possible.
But you also have to think about the possibility of the cheekbones disappearing entirely.
If the cheekbones drop into a perfectly straight line with no prominence at all, the face can actually look unnatural.
If you think about it, it's simple: contouring doesn't shorten the length of your face. But if the cheekbones are reduced, the width becomes narrower, so the face can look longer.
So after contouring, your face can end up looking longer.
If you really admire a long face shape, that's fine, but most people imagine their face becoming overall slimmer and smaller, not looking longer.
That's why you shouldn't rush in thinking, I'll just take out the cheekbones and reduce the jaw no matter what. I recommend thinking carefully about the right balance and the face shape you want, then discussing it thoroughly with the surgeon.
Luckily, my surgeon designed it well with good sense, so I was fortunate. (I didn't really know much in the first place, so I just told them to handle it for me.) But after it was done, I did think, ah, maybe I should have been more careful.
Of course the surgeons will design it well, but you should definitely think it through and discuss the face design you want with the surgeon.
Especially if you bring celebrity photos and say you want a face shape like this, I recommend first imagining what kind of look it would create based on your own face, and then using the celebrity photos only as supplementary material to explain the vibe.
That way, satisfaction will be higher afterward! If you do it and then think, ah, I should have done it like that, it's already too late ㅠ
=================== Personal experience after surgery ========================= People usually say you can return to daily life in about a week to 10 days.
Don't believe it for a second... Well, as everyone knows, unless you're the kind of person who is okay walking around even if your face turns into something like an alien, that's absolutely impossible.
If you were that kind of person in the first place, you probably wouldn't have had plastic surgery at all, right?
To summarize the main point first: I recommend planning for at least 4 months when you have the surgery. And yes, the effect is definitely there! It's just that the side effects feel bigger in comparison, which is why I regret it ㅠ
First, you need to be at least able to chew before you can eat out or meet people.
For up to 6 weeks after surgery, you should eat soft foods, and after that you can slowly start chewing, but to get the jaw muscles to come back up, you need to add a few more weeks on top of that.
The problem is that even when the eating part is resolved, the swelling is still there.
If you only had the cheekbones done, it might be okay, but if you had the jaw done too, you'll probably still have some swelling in the jaw area.
I think I felt awkward and strange until about 3 months.
In fact, before surgery I looked better, and because this is the stage where I look even worse, you can think that for about 3 to 4 months you won't be meeting anyone ㅠ
Until then, you'll actually look worse than before surgery, so you won't want to go out or meet people.
Then after about 3 to 4 months, and maybe around the 5-month mark, the jaw swelling starts to go down a lot, and you begin to see a face that looks better than before.
From that point on, it got better for me. In fact, that's when the effect of contouring really starts to show, so you can go around with a face that looks prettier than before.
Of course, from immediately after surgery onward, you'll keep carrying the side effects related to sagging and sensation in your head ㅠ
And since there is still some minor swelling, photos will make you unnecessarily self-conscious, and you'll keep noticing it in the mirror.
Still, from that point on, your photos come out better and your actual appearance also looks prettier, so you can really start enjoying the effect of the surgery!
After 5 months, even if you wait, the swelling doesn't really keep going down much anymore, and it's not to the point of bothering you a lot, so you almost stop worrying about swelling.
What I definitely felt after having it done is that, maybe because the face shape became more refined, any hairstyle looks better, the overall vibe feels prettier, and I do get more compliments on my appearance than before. There is definitely an effect.
So I'm about half satisfied! But the problem is that I keep thinking, if I have to accept these side effects to get this much improvement, um...
So please really think about whether you can accept the side effects relative to the effect, and then make your decision!
I wrote so much just to tell you that.. As I was writing my personal thoughts without much structure, the post became way too long and probably not very well organized, and there may be a lot of things you already know, so it might not be helpful, but I hope it helps someone out there, and I'll end it here!
Thank you for reading!
*** Tips for the very early swelling after surgery
Oh, and since I think some people might not know this, I highly recommend the swelling-reducing medicines Tripline, Venosin, and Bruna during the early stage after surgery.
These are recommended on the StarDon Pharmacy channel on YouTube, and if you take these 3 together right after surgery, you can experience the swelling going down quickly! I saw a lot of effect from them.
Of course, this only applies to the early swelling stage, up to 2 weeks.
Rather than drinking pumpkin juice or expensive Ellis A for no reason, I think this 3-medicine combination worked better for me, so I recommend it!
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