Satisfied Review of Alar Base Reduction and Alar Lift

Hi.. I was bored during recovery, and for people like me who are obsessively stressed about their appearance, I brought a review. I had only been thinking about plastic surgery since high school, and now that I’m in my mid-20s, I finally had my first cosmetic surgery. The surgery I had was alar base reduction (external incision) and an alar lift. First, when looking for a clinic.. I searched through apps, online communities, recommendations from friends, and so on, and while looking at review photos, I think I looked a lot for successful cases where the nose looked similar to mine. If there were results where I thought, “I don’t want it to turn out like this,” I filtered those out.. Then I just chose two places, went for in-person consultations, and decided on the place where the doctor and I communicated better about my desired look. (On the day of surgery, I was originally only going to do alar base reduction, but I also did an alar lift together. To create a more dramatic change..) In conclusion, it’s only day 4 so far.. but for now, I’m satisfied. The biggest thing is that the drooping of my alae, which always bothered me, has improved. I also like the change in the outline shape of my alar rims. Before surgery, they said the width would spread because they were tying the muscles, and if it turns out that way, I think I’ll be extremely satisfied (because we decided to go in a direction with not much change from my original nose width). And the downsides I felt.. 1. It definitely looks more awkward than my previous nose. There may be cases where it turns out naturally!! But in most cases, since tissue is cut out and reattached.. I think the biggest risk is that the diagonal shape of the nostrils that used to be connected, and the curves of the skin connecting the alae and cheeks, lose the natural look they had before (I think the external incision has a bigger effect). 2. In photos taken from below, it feels like the nasal tip has gotten slightly lower… Since part of the alae was cut away, I thought maybe the tip could be pulled and become shorter.. but is it an optical illusion because the shape changed? Am I just imagining it lol??? Still, when viewed from the side, it doesn’t feel that noticeable, so I’m just trying not to think about it. We went as conservatively as possible with how much to cut. Talk carefully about what shape you want.. And regarding satisfaction with the result, I decided after accepting the above downsides to some extent. My mindset was really, “Even if it fails, go for it!” Because what I gained is greater than what I lost, I’m satisfied.. I’m satisfied because, in exchange for getting my current nose, I was able to let go of the attractive facial harmony I had before (after nose surgery, the face area may look wider, the philtrum may look longer, etc.) and also let go of naturalness. If I had only thought there would be positives, I definitely would have been disappointed.. Anyway, it’s important to weigh the risks and benefits carefully!! That’s my personal theory.. I hope this helps if you’re considering alar reduction.. Please make sure to analyze your own nose well,, how much should be cut.. look into the surgical methods carefully too.. think very carefully about what you’ll gain and whether what you’ll lose might be greater, then decide.. Also, I’m going to get my stitches removed soon, and I’m curious how everyone else managed scars after removal. ((Just in case, I kept the clinic information private, but I wrote it in the comments.))