Hehehe. Before reading this very long post, please note that it contains a lot of my personal opinions, so take it as a reference.
It includes: the story of how I chose the hospital, my surgery review, must-have items for rhinoplasty, the overall surgery timeline, and my personal thoughts on what to consider when getting nose surgery.
The writer is the owner of a hawk nose, as if I got punched in the glabella, and I had long been longing for a straight, clean nasal bridge. I did still have some filler left from a few years ago, but I wanted a natural, refined bridge, so I decided to have surgery. I also got advice from muscular guy friends around me who had nose surgery, and decided to do my homework on a community and choose a hospital.
(TMI, but among muscular guys with great bodies, there are quite a few who want to build an attractive body and also look better in the face, so they surprisingly get rhinoplasty a lot. In other words, they have a lot of information.)
Anyway, while I was doing my research, I saw a very natural and pretty rhinoplasty review with a beautiful bridge in the photo reviews on the community, and thought, this is it, so I booked a consultation.
When I went to the clinic and consulted with the director, I did not bring a photo. I just wanted a nose that was absolutely natural and harmonious with my face shape and facial features. After looking at my CT scan, skin thickness, and various other things, the director also recommended a natural design because pushing the bridge too high could make the glabella look pinched and the midface look longer.
I liked the consultation and the director’s design so much that I did not even go to other clinics for consultations and booked surgery immediately at the first clinic.
Reasons I chose here: 1. A properly sized private clinic (factory-style mega clinics are a no-go for major surgery) 2. Board-certified plastic surgeon with decent experience 3. Plenty of time during consultation, kind, and honest (the honesty was the nicest part) 4. My taste matched the director’s preferred design exactly 5. There were many reviews with the natural look I wanted 6. I have my own intuition, and I had a strong feeling the surgery would turn out really well
On the day of surgery, during the final design consultation with the director, I was asked if I had any last questions or anything I wanted to say, and I said, “Please make it so natural that anyone can look at it and not be able to tell whether I had nose surgery or not because it’s so pretty!” Then I went into the operating room.
- nasal bridge (4 mm silicone) - hump correction - crooked nose correction - columella nasolabial angle correction - tip surgery (septal cartilage, ear cartilage) - osteotomy
After the surgery, I went to the recovery room, and every 2 to 3 seconds it hurt like getting punched in the face by one of those punch machines at the entrance of an arcade. I have never actually been punched in the face, but if someone really drove a clean hit straight into the nose, I feel like this is what it would hurt like.
Anyway, my nose hurt like crazy, but my lower body was all wet. I was like, what is this? and looked, and even though I had clearly fasted before surgery, I had apparently leaked urine all over myself lol. It was so embarrassing. The nurse kindly explained that it could happen because saline had been used during the surgery. Since I was more ashamed of wetting myself than I was of the nose pain, I quickly changed clothes in the recovery room, politely thanked the staff, and made a run for it.
I left too quickly, and the nurse seemed surprised, so she kindly explained that I could rest a bit longer, but I was a shy little pee-soaked coward, so pretending to be considerate of the staff, I casually said, “I should head home so you all can get off work, haha,” and bolted.
I would like to take this chance to thank the kind and attentive staff once again (please forget about the urine incident...)
Anyway, so that blood would not rush to my head, for about 2 days I slept sitting up in a corner with a pillow thrown there, resting my head and lower back. Because the pain was so bad, I would wake up every 20 to 30 minutes while sleeping. I slept at a friend’s place in Seoul until the nasal packing was removed, and thankfully my friend would ask if I was okay every time I woke up muttering “ugh...” in my sleep.
Separate from my friend’s concern, the pain was so severe and mouth breathing dried out my throat too much that I would wake up coughing and gagging. I think I only slept a total of 3 to 4 hours on the first day.
Here is the most important part, five stars: Let me tell you the things you need after nose surgery. 1. Humidifier: Because packing is placed in your nose for hemostasis, you have to mouth-breathe until the packing is removed, so your mouth dries out completely. Humidity control is essential. (Even after the packing comes out, you still have to mouth-breathe because of scabs and boogers.) 2. Pressure-relief cushion or donut cushion: Even though I have an iron butt that can squat a 160 kg 1RM, sitting up to sleep was still hard. (For swelling to go down faster, it helps if the surgical area is higher than the heart. Even if it is hard, do this in the early postoperative period. In my opinion, it works straight on the swelling.) 3. Water within arm’s reach: You might think, why bother with water next to the bed like some old person? But for me, this was the real thing. Because when you mouth-breathe during sleep after surgery, without realizing it you inhale all the air and dust in the room like you are possessed by a Dyson. At some point, that dries out your uvula and deep in your throat so badly that you wake up coughing in agony. In just 3 to 4 seconds, hell opens up, and if you do not have moisture to keep your throat wet at that moment, you are absolutely screwed. 4. Various painkillers: I took a trinity combo of Tylenol, Takcen (the strong one gout patients take), and another painkiller-anti-inflammatory medicine. On the second day, I went to the pharmacy with my friend and bought them, and if I had not had even those, I would have really been in trouble. I do not know whether my meds just do not work well for me or whether post-rhinoplasty pain overpowered them, but even though I read the instructions and took the medicine every 2 to 3 hours, whenever the punch-in-the-face pain came in between doses, I wanted to open the window and jump out lol. (If you do not prepare in advance, you may end up having to drag your painful body to the pharmacy like I did, which is miserable.)
Because the surgery was on a Saturday afternoon, they could not remove the nasal packing on Sunday, so I held out mouth-breathing until Monday morning (this was absolutely hell). Even on Sunday, I think I slept only 3 to 4 hours, waking and sleeping again and again.
Overall surgery timeline summary 1. About one week before surgery, remove any filler left in the nose 2. On the day of surgery, final design consultation with the director, then surgery 3. The next day after surgery, remove the packing from the nose (if surgery is on Saturday, removal is Monday) 4. Seven days after surgery, remove the stitches at the columella and remove the splint 5. Fourteen days after surgery, remove the dissolvable stitches inside the nose and the ear stitches 6. Around 5 weeks after surgery, check postoperative progress
Personal notes to consider for nose surgery if you want to do it in one shot (the final choice is yours, and so is the responsibility, so just use my thoughts as reference and filter them based on what you have seen, heard, and learned).
1. Build metacognition and be good at self-objectification
- This is important not only for plastic surgery but also in life. It helps to know your own strengths, weaknesses, charm points, and character inside and out. Why? Because when people get cosmetic surgery, they usually try to emphasize their strengths and reduce their weaknesses. If you are not objective, you are more likely to make a bad judgment and end up killing both your strengths and your weaknesses. For example, when we were in our teens or early 20s, many people bought clothes or learned makeup without knowing their personal color type or what fit or fabric suited their body type. If someone around them bought something, or a celebrity bought something, they would blindly follow along. Some of those cases happened to turn out well by luck, but usually by the late 20s they look terrible in hindsight lol. Sometimes I honestly want to tear the blanket apart. As you all know, cosmetic surgery also has design trends that change with the times (apparently, back in the day a lot of people brought photos of Lee Hyo-ri, Han Ga-in, and Min Hyo-rin noses). At that point, you need to design the nose naturally and harmoniously by considering the circumference of your skull, your face shape, skin thickness, oral-facial structure, harmony of your features, and your unique charm that comes through your face. But if you just go for the current trend + the nose shape of a celebrity you like, you can end up with facial disharmony + side effects from excessive demands, or trying to become a Barbie-doll boyfriend and spending about 1.1 billion won in Korean currency on cosmetic surgery like Ken, which unfortunately can result in a revision surgery accident and an uncanny-valley feeling for Koreans.
(If you are very satisfied and your quality of life improves so much that you feel like you could die happily, no matter what people around you say, that is an exception.)
A regrettable case heavily colored by my own opinion is:
- An actor who recently appeared on Tak Jae-hoon’s YouTube channel, Gㅇㅇ A close younger friend saw old Cyworld photos and said this was when she looked prettier, so she had the medial epicanthoplasty reversed, and people around her felt sorry about it. If she is satisfied, then there is nothing anyone can do, but from the public’s point of view, she gives off about a 0.5-second Mantis from Guardians of the Galaxy vibe.
- The girl group ㅇㅇㅍㅋ was my favorite during my military days (no no no, don’t get a revision nose surgery, no no no / you are not alone, no no no) Among them, I liked ㅅㄴㅇ the most. Back then, ㅅㄴㅇ was someone whose beauty had no clear likes or dislikes among men, with a uniquely irreplaceable lovely + innocent + cute charm, and in 2015 she even turned the Korean peninsula upside down with practice videos wearing Adidas leggings (women wore Adidas leggings a lot back then). After moving to one of the three major agencies, apparently on someone’s advice, she changed her image through nose surgery, erasing her unique lovely and innocent image and shifting to a more mature, pretty, sexy feel. Of course, even now she is still extremely pretty and has enough looks and charm to be competitive as a celebrity. And at the same time, it is also true that many male fans regretted the loss of her unique irreplaceable lovely and innocent image. That is because back then, ㅅㄴㅇ was number one in the innocent, lovely image category. Of course I am a fan hehe, please watch JTBC’s Agency a lot (sudden worship attack).
- ㅎㅇ, who was the sexy icon in the girl group ㅍㅁㄴ I think many people will relate to ㅎㅇ, who inherited the sexy diva icon after Lee Hyo-ri. It may just be personal taste, but she is a representative case of excessive cosmetic surgery. (If you are pursuing a strong image like Cheetah, Jessi, or Hwasa, I have nothing to say. Rather, if that is your taste, go ahead and choose confidently as you like.)
- An older gym friend has had nose surgery three times and is planning another revision The first time he went to a cheap factory-style clinic and it failed. The second time he had a revision for 7 million won, but personally he was unsatisfied. The third time he wanted to raise the bridge more, so he made the silicone thicker and pushed it up, but it turned into a lumpy avatar nose, so he is planning another revision soon.
- Another acquaintance is planning a revision nose surgery He first went to one of the two famous clinics in Busan (he said many people around him went there, so he did too). He is dissatisfied because the height of the nasal bridge does not suit his facial features and wants a revision.
- A female acquaintance (who carries food around and tries to stop people from getting nose surgery) When she had her first nose surgery, the spoon-shaped nose design was in fashion, so she just raised it high without question. But because her skin is thin, the silicone started to show through, and whenever it got cold her nose became severely Rudolf-like, so she lowered the silicone millimeters and had a revision. During the revision, the bridge near the glabella became a little thicker. So when people around her think about nose surgery, she talks about her own experience and strongly tries to stop them.
2. Is it really a nose problem? Think about that too - As people say, the best cosmetic surgery is dieting. If you have a higher body fat percentage, mild obesity, or severe obesity, then rather than getting nose surgery first, I think it is not too late to first do cardio + strength training, lose facial fat, naturally make your features more defined, and look at your other charms as well. That is because many people, including the ones reading this post, do not realize how much of their own irreplaceable lovable charm they already have. (Sometimes they are just too used to it and take it for granted.) In reality, there are many positive cases around us where people changed their image dramatically by emphasizing their strengths through dieting and skin care without any surgery!
3. If you have done everything you can and still decide to get nose surgery, choose the right hospital and doctor for yourself
- No matter how skilled they are, choose a specialist over a non-specialist without exception. - No matter how good the reviews say they are, if they seem bothered and exhausted during an in-person consultation, one look tells you everything. If they act like that, the odds of ending up needing revision surgery go up. - A veteran board-certified surgeon who has done this for more than 10 years will naturally develop intuition and sense from big data. If the doctor tells you not to do it, then do not do it. (They make money by doing surgery, so if someone who profits from doing it is stopping you, that says something.) - Surgery usually succeeds when you adjust things well somewhere between your own needs and the doctor’s advice. (Here, success means a result that you yourself are satisfied with.) - Anything in excess causes trouble. If you do not know when to be satisfied with a reasonable result and keep staring in the mirror, getting greedy, then after revision surgery you may end up suffering from capsular contracture, inflammation, implant visibility, and all kinds of side effects, spending money like crazy while your result gets worse and worse compared with the moderately satisfying first result. That can even lead to mental distress and social avoidance.
I started this with gratitude toward the director who did a great job, and on the way from Seoul back to my hometown, I got bored and wrote this rambling, pointless TMI.
Of course, whether the director prefers glamorous or soft, natural styles, he is a surgeon who does great work. But if you personally want a natural feel and cannot decide on a nose surgery clinic, I recommend this place.
Trust your own thoughts and judgment, and if my useless post helped even a little with your nose surgery, I would be happy!