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Hi all, I had a bunch of procedures done in late February and early March of 2020, and will be writing about it in this thread! Some of you might've followed my journey through KKT, Discord, or my blog, but I thought I'd post it here too for accessibility. Procedures done at Wannabe: EYES: incisional double eyelid surgery, ptosis correction, medial epicanthoplasty FAT GRAFT: forehead, temples, frontal cheek, chin UNDEREYE: fat repositioning JOWLS/JAW LINE: Accusculpt, threadlift (8 Mint threads), masseter muscle botox Dr. Jin Premium Nose Clinic: rhinoplasty with dorsum augmentation and tip projection using autologous rib cartilage Even though all of my surgeries were primaries, I knew that I wanted rib cartilage for my nose because of the long-term complication rate with alloplastic implants and donor cartilage, which made it seem inevitable that I'd need a revision surgery within a decade. I ended up picking Dr. Jin of Premium Nose Clinic without ever having an in-person consultation due to his experience with using autologous rib cartilage, natural aesthetic, and hearing positive things by word-of-mouth. For the other procedures, my short list was the following: JK Topface Namu Wannabe CWCMC (eye specialist only) I had scheduled Wannabe, Namu, and CWCMC for the first day, and then JK and Topface for the second day. Here are how the consultations went: WANNABE Alice is basically the most personable English speaking consultant ever- incredibly responsive and friendly. We'd corresponded over Kakao for about a month or so before I traveled to Seoul. The clinic was pretty easy to find and it was quiet when I arrived- one other client in the waiting room when I arrived, with 5 staff members at the front desk. I filled out some paperwork and they checked my passport to ensure that I hadn't visited China recently. I met with Alice for about 20 minutes and we continued our discussion now that I was actually in front of her. She assessed the thickness of my eyelid skin since I was interested in DES and medial epicanthoplasty- and she noted that I needed ptosis correction, which wasn't obvious from the pictures that I'd sent her. She also assessed the tissue around my jaw by touching my jaw and asking me to clench my teeth, since I'm pursuing non-invasive jaw contouring, and noted that it was a combination of muscle and fat that contributed to my square jaw, and suggested botox with Acculift and threadlifting. We then talked about my fat grafting aspirations- I'd already wanted fat grafting for my forehead and nasolabial lines, and she suggested that since I was already doing two areas, which counted as "full face" fat grafting, to also graft my frontal cheek area since that was sunken. After we had decided on the procedures, I met with Dr. Chang (also spelled as Jang), who agreed with the suggested procedures, and also suggested chin and undereye fat repositioning (I later learned that this was a specialty of his, and apparently he had invented a specialized needle for this procedure). Dr. Chang used that eye pokey tool to simulate folds for my eye- I wanted a slightly higher crease that would balance out the medial epicanthoplasty Overall, good experience with the clinic staff, Dr. Chang spoke English and was easy to talk to, seemed attentive and knowledgeable. Quoted prices were on the higher end, and I ended up with ALOT of procedures: incision DES, ptosis correction, medial epicanthoplasty, botox, accusculpt for jaw, threadlift (8 mint threads), undereye fat repositioning, full face fat injection and tear trough fat injection NAMU I'd been corresponding with Claire and she was very helpful but not always responsive- I get the impression that she's very busy. She seemed to forget that I was scheduled to consult today until I asked to confirm in the morning, and I think they had to squeeze me in even though the appointment had been made a month ago. The clinic was very busy with locals, and I spent about 10 minutes waiting before seeing Linda, the English speaking consultant. THEY DIDN'T CHECK MY PASSPORT and even though I'm American, I'm ethnically Chinese and definitely look it, so they don't seem to be taking Coronavirus precautions... Linda and I had a brief consultation and honestly I don't think anything interesting or important was said except that she suggested laser lifting instead of acculift, but also with threadlifting. I was to consult with Dr. Kirk, but he was in surgery, and I spent about an hour in the office twiddling my thumbs and taking photos of their B&A book. I also had the chance to observe the clinic hallway a bit, and it seemed pretty chaotic and frantic, which is a totally subjective opinion, but Eventually Dr. Kirk arrived and I think he just agreed with everything that I said, and I left feeling like nothing had really happened. I learned that Ulthera, the more expensive of the laser lifting options, was "stronger" and normally they would recommend 2 sessions of Doublo Gold for someone like me, but since I would probably only do one session, that I should go with Ulthera.(edited) NAMU overall: clinic felt very busy and chaotic, not sure I would receive any attention after the surgery lol, but quoted very low prices (about 50% of what WANNABE quoted me for roughly the same procedures). Possibly a good option if I weren't doing something as finicky as eyes. The price was definitely right. I might be concerned if I were visiting at a later date since they don't seem to be taking precautions against corona virus. CWCMC I was referred to Dr. Choi by Dr. Jin of Premier Nose, and I believe that Dr. Choi is an eye specialist in the same way that Dr. Jin is a nose specialist- they prioritize functionality over all else, which I think tends to result in a natural look. Dr. Choi was extremely warm and friendly, his English was good, and he was the only one who shook my hand lol (he knew I was American and I had been talking with him personally over KKT). I didn't even speak to any of his staff (I don't think they spoke English?). He took alot of time to ask what I wanted and explain the technical aspects of the procedures. We never talked about price. I feel very confident that he is an extremely technically talented surgeon, as well as generally a really nice and considerate person, but I didn't feel confident about whether he would achieve the aesthetic results that I wanted. His before and afters were very natural, but when he was using the pokey stick tool to shape my eye crease, he never seemed to get a shape that I wanted. I don't think I was able to properly convey to him the shape that I wanted, whereas with Dr. Chang of WANNABE, he was very quickly able to make the eye shape configuration that I was hoping for. CWCMC overall: I wish I had picked Dr. Choi just because he's so nice, but he only does eyes, and I wanted other procedures, and I didn't feel like he and I were on the same page about the results I hope to achieve I ended up picking Wannabe due to a few factors So outside of a few hard objective factors, like being licensed, accessible, seeing before and afters that seemed realistic and also aligned with my own personal ideal, etc., alot of my decision was based on "feel" or my "gut". It's entirely possible that I could've been just as happy or even more satisfied at Namu, but I picked Wannabe because of how they made me feel: Alice - honestly, she was a huge factor in my decision. The fact that I could communicate clearly with her and that I felt like I had her full attention whenever it was warranted made me feel comfortable and safe Dr. Chang - he very quickly and deftly manipulated my eyelids to the shape that I wanted to achieve, and I think that inspired confidence in me that he and I had similar aesthetic ideals. He also seemed calm (not stressed or overworked) and capable clinic staff - the staff were polite and helpful. call me superstitious but I think that if the staff are rude and stressed, that says something about the work environment only 2 doctors, and each doctor does a maximum of 4 surgeries a day, according to Alice I'll post more as I finish writing about the surgeries and recovery process

Forums are a good starting points (even purseforum), but you just have to be wary of which posts are legit and which are from promoters. Usually, in-depth posts with detailed descriptions of consultations at multiple clinics, along with a fair (not excessively praising) evaluation of the poster's clinic of choice, are what I look for as "legit" posts. For me, the most helpful thing that I did while researching clinics was to reach out to people who had personally gone to my clinics of interest over KKT, and ask for their experiences. Try your best to get on Kakao , there are so many resources available through those chat groups. Be prepared to read them almost constantly for months, and reach out to people who've personally gone to the clinics that you think would be a good fit for you. The Kakao chat groups favor smaller clinics and a more independent approach, but there is always the "flavor of the month" and cycles of popularity for various clinics. It's a bit more quiet nowadays due to the Covid19 lockdown/quarantines, but there is still alot of good info (as well as some bad info) floating around. Here's my KKT. If you message me, I'll try to add you to the 2020 Rhinoplasty group if you're not in it already https://open.kakao.com/o/sCHi1WSb