Is muscle hemming my only option for a shorter philtrum? (Photo)

In my opinion, muscle hemming is rarely required when performing a lip lift. Doctors love to develop nuance in surgical procedures to distinguish themselves, and sometimes these embellishments are confusing to the public. Muscle hemming can be useful when you want to roll the vermilion upward in a patient that has an already short cutaneous upper lip, but it is not needed to support the lip or prevent widening or migration of the sub-nasal scar. There are ways of closing the incision that anchor the lip to the stronger, deeper tissues for support. If you have a redundant muscle roll under your nose, it can be conservatively trimmed without impairing function. As already suggested, you can also use a very small amount of Botox to weaken the muscle.  Personally, I think that you are a good candidate for skin only lip lift.