hi guys, just had my first full day in Seoul. no symptoms of corona yet, lol. I had three consultations today, February 25th, 2020, which I'll describe below. may ninja edit later for grammar/clarity since I'm pretty fried right now
Alice is basically the most personable English speaking consultant ever- incredibly responsive and friendly. We'd corresponded over Kakao for the last month of so. 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 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 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 ptosis correction and medial epicanthoplasty
WANNABE overall: good experience with the clinic staff, Dr. Chang was easy to talk to, spoke English, seemed attentive and knowledgable. Quoted prices were on the higher end, 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 for tear trough fat injection
I'd been corresponding with Claire and she was very helpful but not very 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.
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
since they only have 2 doctors, and each doctor does a maximum of 4 surgeries a day (I think 2-3 is more typical given the time slots that were discussed), I think they have higher prices, especially for foreigners on a constrained schedule (like me), since they actually move around the locals' appointments to accommodate foreigners (after I said there was no way I could do any day except tomorrow, all 5 staff at the desk started calling patients and arranging to move appointments ._. i felt kinda guilty for disrupting their schedules but also not because I paid for it, dammit). I ended up getting 20% off the initial quote that Alice gave me for bundling a bunch of procedures, but on some level, I feel like she was just making up numbers up in her head lol. I probably could have bargained harder to get a lower price, but I was also pushing to have surgery on a specific day, so it seemed like a bit of a trade. When signing consent docs, I noticed there was a line about posting reviews, and asked Alice about it- she said they wouldn't be able to offer me any additional discounts, but if I posted reviews on public forums, they may offer me free procedures (like laser pigmentation treatment and botox) in the future. I was going to post reviews either way, but full disclosure that I may get free botox and lasering if I go back to Seoul in 6 months (unlikely, we'll all be dead from corona virus) originally I was going to consult with TOPFACE and JK tomorrow, but they were always lower on my list, and I'm already feeling information overload. I feel pretty good about WANNABE just because of how the staff, Alice, and Dr. Chang treated me, and I wanted to get my preferred surgery date, so I put down a deposit and am going in tomorrow for my big list of procedures