I’m currently 31, and I’ve been overweight since I was young. Among everything, my face was my biggest concern. Even when I lost weight, my face never got any smaller. Last year, as if I was drawn to it, I went to my first plastic surgery consultation. There, they touched my face here and there and said we should shave the eyes, nose, and jaw, trim the cheekbones a bit, and do liposuction all at once! I decided I should do that too. (without a clue) At the time, my face was at its chubbiest, like my debut days as a plump ajumma, so you can imagine. A relative who heard that said, why shave the jaw too? They were furious! (I was the first person around me to have had cosmetic surgery) They told me to go somewhere else too. I usually have the bad habit of buying something at the first store I visit and not wanting to go around to several places, but I decided to visit another place, thinking I might as well see. There, after feeling my face, they said the muscles were developed and there was a lot of fat, but there was definitely no bone worth shaving. They said to get Botox first, wait 6 months, see how it goes, and then do liposuction. Coincidentally, it was February then, and 6 months later would roughly be vacation season in summer, so the timing was fine too. Since they did not pressure me to fix everything right away or point out the flaws in my face as if scolding me, I actually felt more at ease. So a few days later, I got Botox, and my long journey into cosmetic surgery(?) began. Botox is not something that works immediately, and waiting anxiously does not make it work twice as well, and I was so busy with work that I forgot about it as I went about my days, and before I knew it, it was summer vacation. One day, when I looked in the mirror, I could see that the spot where there had definitely been muscle had slightly caved inward. Instead, the fat-filled flesh around my jaw had popped out, making my face look saggy. That said, it does not mean the muscles had dramatically disappeared. Still, it was noticeable enough that a close friend told me it was such a mysterious shot. Anyway, I wanted to do eye, nose, and liposuction all at once, but the director said that would be too hard on the patient, so we should do the eyes and nose first and take it slowly after that. I was in a hurry, but I still had to go back to work a week later, and since they said liposuction would cause a lot of swelling, and I was scared because it was my first cosmetic surgery, I decided to fix only two areas. After fixing the eyes and nose, my impression changed horribly. I had never seen swelling around me before, and at the time I did not even know about places like this community, so my family, with absolutely no prior or post-op knowledge, sat together and looked at my face, only saying that I did not seem like someone from our family. Ugh... I was not used to my face then, so I got startled every time I looked in the mirror. Before my face had fully settled, I was too embarrassed after surgery and went back to work a week later. I wore glasses and sunglasses, and my nose ended up crooked. When I was told that if it was not corrected right away I would need a revision surgery after 6 months, I got scared and had it corrected again after 2 weeks. But going to work with bandages on was really awful. I still went, but after asking for understanding, I took another 5 days off. After years of severe overtime and stress, combined with the desire to become pretty somehow, even if through cosmetic surgery this year, I quit my job after a month and finally got facial liposuction. Thinking it was a simple procedure, the discomfort and pain from the anesthesia injection made my eyes feel like they would pop out. Still, because it had been a complex of mine since I was very young, I pictured Jeon Ji-hyun’s face in my head and endured it with both hands tucked under my butt. Later I heard that they removed so much fat that it would be unimaginable on another person’s face, and that the fat pieces were almost the size of ice pellets. The swelling was really no joke. Of course it was bigger than before surgery, and there was bruising and a bumpy facial line- plus the discomfort of the tightening band and numb cheeks and jaw. For the first time, regret came over me. I wondered whether they had even removed any fat at all; instead of an effect, it seemed even stranger. There was no one to ask, and I just felt frustrated. I went through all that trouble and really could not feel any effect at all. Still, fortunately I have a relaxed personality, so I decided to wait and started dieting and yoga. Before I knew it, my nose and eyes had also settled into place, and my face slowly began to get smaller too. People started saying I had gotten prettier, and my very close college senior friend failed to recognize me. The face liposuction did work! But the fat that came off was not from exercise little by little, and because my skin is so thick, it sagged. Another worry came up. If I was not wearing makeup and smiling while tense, the sagging in my face was too obvious. My facial line was strange too, and the jawline I had longed for was not there either. After a consultation, they said I should get a facelift. At first I hesitated. A facelift already in my early 30s? You think something like that is for your 50s. But even if I lost weight, my face was still sagging..... My mom and older sister told me to do it. (it must have been that bad) So anyway, one year after the liposuction, I had it done last Saturday (August 20). The procedure I had was a combination of a mini facelift and a Magic Lift using Aptos threads. They said I was sagging a lot more than most people my age, so a thread-only lift would not be very effective. The mini facelift pulls the sagging flesh around the jaw up behind the ears and removes the remaining skin, and the Magic Lift inserts threads with a needle into the facial muscles and flesh (I think you can imagine it as sewing up the face) and fixes them to the head area. I am not explaining it very well;;; I had about as much skin removed as people in their 60s usually have excised, and because the left side was bigger than the right and the jaw muscles were more developed, I also trimmed a bit of the inner jaw muscle and lifted it. There were doctors learning from another hospital during my surgery, and since the doctor explained things while operating, I ended up learning along with them..;; Among eye, nose, and facial liposuction, the dull ache seems to linger the longest. Since I had it done last Saturday, today is day 5. The stitches have not been removed yet. I feel a foreign-body sensation around the ears, the head area, and both cheeks, and speaking is okay, but my pronunciation does not come out clearly. I cannot open my mouth very wide, and I have to be careful when chewing. For a month, they told me not to make big facial expressions, not to smile broadly, and not to open my mouth widely. The swelling is not completely gone. Since they made incisions too, there is bruising below the ears as well. The cheeks are puffy too. Since I have not been able to wash my face, the drawings I had on my face before surgery are still there. Until around day 3 it hurt a bit, and today on day 5 only the area around the ears is mildly aching, and the face and temples feel a bit tingly, but it is not to the point of being hard to bear. (Until yesterday I was too lazy to write a review, but the fact that I am writing it today means I am much better now.) Since there seem to be some people curious about this surgery, I was going to write only this, but it ended up becoming a complete re-examination of my entire cosmetic surgery journey. The most important part is the result...! As I said, it is only day 5 and the stitches have not been removed yet, so I cannot say much. Personally, just looking at my current state, this is the surgery I am most satisfied with so far. The corners of my lips did not lift dramatically or anything like that. But even with swelling, I really like the jawline that shows through. The bulldog-like skin that had been sagging around my mouth is gone too. Since the sagging flesh was my biggest complex, the swollen cheek flesh on both sides does not even catch my eye. I am not even a celebrity, and yet I ended up touching up my face for a whole year. I have also been keeping up with dieting and exercise. My confidence has grown too. It is not to brag, but I went to a really good school, have a decent job, my family is good too, my personality is good, I am reasonably feminine, I have wit, my parents are both wonderful, and I did not lack anything in particular, but my looks were really at the level of a chubby, plump debut-era ajumma. Before turning 30, I could not even properly date a man once, and whenever I went on blind dates or arranged meetings, I often got turned down because of my looks. So I just kept shrinking back and had no confidence. Actually, that is why my mom spent money on my appearance. Other than my looks, I really did not lack anything as a woman (that is probably what my mom thought;;;), and she said that these days men look at appearance first, so I should get surgery. My sister encouraged me too, so I gathered my courage. Compared with photos from a year ago, it really is a swan being born. Now, once the swelling goes down and things settle, I will upload the changes over the past year. Of course, like the photos I posted before, I will only leave them up for a day or two, but please do not say again, like last time, that I posted someone else’s photo or that I am a broker or anything like that.
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