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My Facelift Experience with V-lif in South Korea
After noticing that I was having trouble blending makeup, I realized that my facial skin had lost its elasticity and started looking into having some work done over 3 years ago. I flew to Seoul for the 1st time in December 2019 and clinic hopped. The general consensus was that I didn’t yet need a facelift so I opted for FG and thread lift at NAMU. The surgery was surprisingly easy for me because I didn’t experience the usual nausea and vomiting post op. A fat top off in 6 month was planned but failed to materialize because of Covid19. Having a super-fast metabolism, the grafted fat and threads in my face were completely absorbed within the ensuing 2 years while I waited for the pandemic to be over. I couldn’t tell any remaining trace of improvement in my appearance as a result. Realizing that I needed something more permanent than temporary fixes, I started looking into a facelift in 2022.
My heart was set on Dr. Dongman Park at BIO who’s famous for his dramatic facelifts. However, getting in touch with his office was a challenge. When I finally communicate with his consultant, a Chinese lady named Zhu Zhu, on WhatsApp, I was stunned by how expensive he was. For about $32k I could have easily had it done here in the US! I also found her off-putting after being told that Dr. Park wasn’t known for being cheap and that to be given any discount I’d have to pay in cash. I couldn’t see myself traveling with a fat wad of cash, so I took it as a sign to avoid. I began to search for an alternative here on Purse Forum.
V-lif came onto my radar. I’m a firm believer in clinics that specialize in a given procedure. V-lif does facelifts and facelifts only. As a designer, I was quite impressed by their modern elegant chic office interior design. It gave off a certain young and fresh vibe just like their doctors. Shortly after following them on IG, I saw a post looking for models so I volunteered. Yura, their English consultant, informed me that their business manager didn’t think that I was the kind of mature candidate that would showcase more of a dramatic result with. However, as luck had it, I saw their 40% summer promotion post days later and immediately jumped on it. Again, it was a “sign”I locked down a surgery date on October 5th with a deposit and made travel arrangements around it.
Several factors helped me making up my mind: 1) Yura the English consultant was a pleasure to work with. Having dealt with a few of them from different clinics, she was by far the most genuine and least pushy. Aside from the 12 hour time difference, we didn’t have much difficulty communicating back and forth. 2) V-lif employs the best technique that is now the industry standard, Deep Plane FL, where the skin, SMAS, and facia layers are dissected, the retaining ligaments are repositioned before the above layer are pulled and trimmed or folded. 3) The quote I got was reasonable especially after the 40% off promotion. I agreed to share my photos and story online for another 20% discount which unfortunately disqualified me from the 10% VAT back at the airport. In total I paid about 16M KRW for my surgery which is about 1/3 of what I would have paid with Dr. Dongman Park. 4) I was apprehensive about the hassle of quarantine and covid testing upon arrival at INCHEN airport but all restrictions were lifted a day before my flight. Talking about meant to be!
But I’m not one to put all my eggs in one basket. The day prior to my surgery, not only did I have a consultation with V-lif head surgeon Shim, I also went to NAMU, JK, and WONJIN just to be sure. And it turned out that my initial intuition was right. I either didn’t vibe with the doctors or the prices would be simply too outrageous at the other places. During the consultation, Dr. Shim struck me as very neutral and professional. I told him my concerns about my face and I, as a layperson, was openminded to hear he had to say about what my face needed. He made minor suggestions such as filling up the hollows in my side cheeks for a more youthful look, something I was previously unaware of. Nothing unnecessary was pushed upon or sold to me. I ended up having a mini facelift (mid & lower face & chin & jawline), FG to side cheeks, temples, upper eyelids, and laugh lines, lower blepharoplasty, and right tear trough filler/fat removal (to smooth out a filler/fat bump from previous surgery) at V-lif. I was also given a skin booster shot and a VIP gift bag with a sunscreen, scar cream, and a bruise cream as a bonus. Yura personally took me to the pharmacy near the office to fill my RX. I was under the impression that a mini FL would be somewhat a minor surgery. Yura, too, seemed confident that I would be the type of patients who wouldn’t swell or bruise much. Little did she know about my flair for drama…
There’s nothing mini about a mini FL. I was as swollen post op as the head of a drowned pig submerged in water for 10 days and it got progressively worse in the first 3 days. With all that messy hair, gauze, ointment, and compression bandage, my face was an entangled exploding mess! The compression bandage that was supposed to be kept on continuously for the first 3 days felt so tight against my massive swelling that I could barely open my mouth and eyes. Eating was a challenge. Just when I managed to pry my mouth open to slide some food in, my body rejected it with vomiting to purge the residual general anesthesia in my system. Yura panicked, “Oh no, please don’t! It’s going to affect your final results!” Aww she cared…Lower eyelid sutures were taken out on the 3rd day and the rest on day 7 post op then off I went back to the US.
As a designer, I’m the type extremely critical of my own looks. My face healed ever so slowly, I had been previously conditioned by those perfectly flawless and taut post op FL photos online, that I didn’t see much improvement if any after mine. My face swelled unevenly and deswelled the same way. It’s been 3 months since my surgery and the first-time applying makeup, I notice that it’s now easy again to blend the foundation. No one seems to have noticed that I’ve got something done to my face. Looking in the mirror, I seem less haggard. Although come facial muscles are still hard and it would take at least another month for them to soften, there’s no nerve damage or paralysis. The big craters in my face caused by uneven swelling are disappearing slowly but surely. The jury’s still out on the partially rough lower eyelid incisions. Fingers crossed that they’ll smooth out over time. Time will also tell how long or if the FG will last this time with my hyper metabolism and all…
Conclusion: I don’t regret going to V-lif at all. As much as I wished for a dramatic result, I appreciate their conservative approach. Their facility is modern, clean, and well run, staff friendly, and doctors young, capable, and experienced. I’m a slow healer which would make it disingenuous of me to give a final verdict on my surgery outcome ATM. But I will update this post once I’ve recovered completely. For the ones contemplating about having work done in South Korea but not quite sure about how, you don’t need to go through a 3rd party as they charge commissions and will steer you towards the clinics offering them the most incentives. Almost all clinics have English websites and English-speaking consultants. Do you own research online, find clinics that pique your interest and reach out to them via IG or WhatsApp. It’s easy to travel to Korea on your own without speaking a word of Korean.
My heart was set on Dr. Dongman Park at BIO who’s famous for his dramatic facelifts. However, getting in touch with his office was a challenge. When I finally communicate with his consultant, a Chinese lady named Zhu Zhu, on WhatsApp, I was stunned by how expensive he was. For about $32k I could have easily had it done here in the US! I also found her off-putting after being told that Dr. Park wasn’t known for being cheap and that to be given any discount I’d have to pay in cash. I couldn’t see myself traveling with a fat wad of cash, so I took it as a sign to avoid. I began to search for an alternative here on Purse Forum.
V-lif came onto my radar. I’m a firm believer in clinics that specialize in a given procedure. V-lif does facelifts and facelifts only. As a designer, I was quite impressed by their modern elegant chic office interior design. It gave off a certain young and fresh vibe just like their doctors. Shortly after following them on IG, I saw a post looking for models so I volunteered. Yura, their English consultant, informed me that their business manager didn’t think that I was the kind of mature candidate that would showcase more of a dramatic result with. However, as luck had it, I saw their 40% summer promotion post days later and immediately jumped on it. Again, it was a “sign”I locked down a surgery date on October 5th with a deposit and made travel arrangements around it.
Several factors helped me making up my mind: 1) Yura the English consultant was a pleasure to work with. Having dealt with a few of them from different clinics, she was by far the most genuine and least pushy. Aside from the 12 hour time difference, we didn’t have much difficulty communicating back and forth. 2) V-lif employs the best technique that is now the industry standard, Deep Plane FL, where the skin, SMAS, and facia layers are dissected, the retaining ligaments are repositioned before the above layer are pulled and trimmed or folded. 3) The quote I got was reasonable especially after the 40% off promotion. I agreed to share my photos and story online for another 20% discount which unfortunately disqualified me from the 10% VAT back at the airport. In total I paid about 16M KRW for my surgery which is about 1/3 of what I would have paid with Dr. Dongman Park. 4) I was apprehensive about the hassle of quarantine and covid testing upon arrival at INCHEN airport but all restrictions were lifted a day before my flight. Talking about meant to be!
But I’m not one to put all my eggs in one basket. The day prior to my surgery, not only did I have a consultation with V-lif head surgeon Shim, I also went to NAMU, JK, and WONJIN just to be sure. And it turned out that my initial intuition was right. I either didn’t vibe with the doctors or the prices would be simply too outrageous at the other places. During the consultation, Dr. Shim struck me as very neutral and professional. I told him my concerns about my face and I, as a layperson, was openminded to hear he had to say about what my face needed. He made minor suggestions such as filling up the hollows in my side cheeks for a more youthful look, something I was previously unaware of. Nothing unnecessary was pushed upon or sold to me. I ended up having a mini facelift (mid & lower face & chin & jawline), FG to side cheeks, temples, upper eyelids, and laugh lines, lower blepharoplasty, and right tear trough filler/fat removal (to smooth out a filler/fat bump from previous surgery) at V-lif. I was also given a skin booster shot and a VIP gift bag with a sunscreen, scar cream, and a bruise cream as a bonus. Yura personally took me to the pharmacy near the office to fill my RX. I was under the impression that a mini FL would be somewhat a minor surgery. Yura, too, seemed confident that I would be the type of patients who wouldn’t swell or bruise much. Little did she know about my flair for drama…
There’s nothing mini about a mini FL. I was as swollen post op as the head of a drowned pig submerged in water for 10 days and it got progressively worse in the first 3 days. With all that messy hair, gauze, ointment, and compression bandage, my face was an entangled exploding mess! The compression bandage that was supposed to be kept on continuously for the first 3 days felt so tight against my massive swelling that I could barely open my mouth and eyes. Eating was a challenge. Just when I managed to pry my mouth open to slide some food in, my body rejected it with vomiting to purge the residual general anesthesia in my system. Yura panicked, “Oh no, please don’t! It’s going to affect your final results!” Aww she cared…Lower eyelid sutures were taken out on the 3rd day and the rest on day 7 post op then off I went back to the US.
As a designer, I’m the type extremely critical of my own looks. My face healed ever so slowly, I had been previously conditioned by those perfectly flawless and taut post op FL photos online, that I didn’t see much improvement if any after mine. My face swelled unevenly and deswelled the same way. It’s been 3 months since my surgery and the first-time applying makeup, I notice that it’s now easy again to blend the foundation. No one seems to have noticed that I’ve got something done to my face. Looking in the mirror, I seem less haggard. Although come facial muscles are still hard and it would take at least another month for them to soften, there’s no nerve damage or paralysis. The big craters in my face caused by uneven swelling are disappearing slowly but surely. The jury’s still out on the partially rough lower eyelid incisions. Fingers crossed that they’ll smooth out over time. Time will also tell how long or if the FG will last this time with my hyper metabolism and all…
Conclusion: I don’t regret going to V-lif at all. As much as I wished for a dramatic result, I appreciate their conservative approach. Their facility is modern, clean, and well run, staff friendly, and doctors young, capable, and experienced. I’m a slow healer which would make it disingenuous of me to give a final verdict on my surgery outcome ATM. But I will update this post once I’ve recovered completely. For the ones contemplating about having work done in South Korea but not quite sure about how, you don’t need to go through a 3rd party as they charge commissions and will steer you towards the clinics offering them the most incentives. Almost all clinics have English websites and English-speaking consultants. Do you own research online, find clinics that pique your interest and reach out to them via IG or WhatsApp. It’s easy to travel to Korea on your own without speaking a word of Korean.
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