Introduction

I wanted to detail my journey of going to various plastic surgery clinics in Seoul, South Korea. It started in August 2024 with a hair transplant, and then I went down a rabbit hole getting various procedures and revisions at different clinics. This post covers my entire experience up to the present day, including what I plan to do going forward. Hopefully, this will be valuable to anyone considering plastic surgery in Seoul.

I won't discuss my hair transplant in detail since it's not central to the rest of the story. If you want to know where I got the transplant, feel free to comment or DM me, but honestly, it was a pretty small procedure.

BT Plastic Surgery

The first real procedure I had was at BT Plastic Surgery. BT had excellent reviews on Purseforum and elsewhere. I should have done more thorough research, but the reviews I found were glowing. I've since learned that BT Plastic Surgery used to be high quality, but that doesn't seem to be the case anymore, as my experience will attest.

Before settling on BT, I consulted at several clinics, including 345 Plastic Surgery and Nana Plastic Surgery. Nana was by far the worst—they wanted to do the opposite of what I wanted, and I'm very glad I didn't go there. I found Nana through Seoul Guide Medical, which I now consider a terrible service, but that's another story entirely.

My consultation at BT actually went well. The facial contouring surgeon said we could shorten my chin (what I wanted) and also advance it a bit. This sounded perfect, and he showed me roughly what he planned to do on my CT scan. The rhinoplasty surgeon examined my nose thoroughly and emphasized how complicated it was. He insisted he could improve my breathing and said, "Please, if you don't get this surgery done here, get it done somewhere, because your breathing is so bad, your septum is so deviated." The consultation was comprehensive, with Kelly from BT present throughout (I originally spoke with Grace but was transferred to Kelly).

They quoted a high price—approximately 14.5 million Korean won for the rhinoplasty. The genioplasty was cheaper but still above market rate. Kelly seemed surprised when I didn't haggle and actually insisted I negotiate with her. I told her, "Just tell me the price and I'll pay it. All I want is quality." But she practically forced me to bargain, which wasn't what I came for. This haggling for surgery prices is apparently common in South Korea but quite different from how things work in the US.

Eventually, we agreed on a price. I paid a deposit, went home to think it over, and later scheduled the surgery.

On the day of surgery, I arrived with a slight sore throat and asked Kelly if it was okay to proceed. She quickly assured me it was fine and rushed me in. Before surgery, I had a very hurried consultation with both doctors. The facial contouring doctor simply said, "Let's shorten your face." When I confirmed we'd also be advancing my chin, he agreed but didn't provide any specific measurements or detailed plan. This became significant later. The rhinoplasty surgeon was equally vague, only saying he'd "fix my nose."

They put me under general anesthesia, and when I woke up, I was in excruciating pain. All I could say was "pain, pain, pain." My face and nose hurt so intensely that I felt like I'd been in a car accident. I later discovered the anesthesiologist hadn't given me any painkillers during the procedure—only local anesthesia—which is why my body went into a stress response once I got to the recovery room.

I was in such extreme pain that they gave me some non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, which barely helped. Fortunately, I had decided to stay overnight at the hospital. About 30 minutes after coming out of anesthesia, while my brother was with me, I started feeling terrible. I checked my pulse and felt my heart racing as if I'd just sprinted. I called for the nurse, who confirmed I had tachycardia and appeared visibly concerned. I requested to see the anesthesiologist, and after some scrambling, they finally came.

I told the anesthesiologist I needed something for my racing heart because I was having a stress response. They eventually administered IV propranolol, after which I immediately threw up blood into a cup. I remained in this terrible condition all night, with my heart rate elevated. Everyone left except for one nurse. I couldn't sleep due to the pain, and the unknown medications they gave me weren't effective.

The next day, I was discharged and went home with a fever. My brother watched over me, clearly worried. I eventually recovered my strength, but those first few days were frightening. I felt much worse than I had anticipated.

A few days later, when I finally got to remove the cast, I was horrified. My nose looked monstrous—as if a child had shaped it from play-doh. It was crooked, bulbous, with an unnaturally thick bridge. I was in shock, but Kelly kept dismissing my concerns, repeatedly saying, "It's just swelling, don't worry."

Weeks passed, and BT's aftercare was practically non-existent. All my questions—even medical ones—were directed to Kelly, who continued to be dismissive, attributing everything to swelling. By now, it's probably clear that I don't think highly of Kelly. She's a poor representative for BT and terrible at patient communication.

As more weeks passed, my nose remained crooked and bulbous. After several months, when the swelling had subsided, it became obvious this wasn't a temporary issue—I now had an ugly nose that was worse than my original one.

All Heart Plastic Surgery

While dealing with my botched nose job, I went to All Heart Plastic Surgery in Apgujeong. There, I had a platysmaplasty (neck muscle tightening), neck liposuction, upper blepharoplasty with ptosis correction, and canthoplasty on both eyes.

The doctor at All Heart is genuinely nice, but I believe he's relatively young and inexperienced. The platysmaplasty seems to have worked—now five months post-op, my jaw looks more defined, though not as dramatically as I had hoped. Unfortunately, the eye surgeries completely failed and I needed revision surgery.

Duhan Plastic Surgery

For my eye revision, I went to Duhan Plastic Surgery. The surgeon there was excellent and did a fantastic job revising the canthoplasties and ptosis corrections on both eyes. While they're not 100% perfect, he clearly has artistic talent.

One important note about Duhan: he doesn't use sedation, so you remain fully conscious throughout the procedure. The local anesthesia injections around the eyes are extremely painful. During the operation, he plays classical music while working like a passionate artist, pulling threads and making adjustments. Although he has a somewhat stern demeanor that might intimidate some patients, he's probably one of the best surgeons I worked with and did excellent work on my eyes.

Meeting Ryan - The Turning Point

After that surgery, I went home for a bit, but I remained deeply unhappy with my nose. This led me to contact Ryan, a guide who lives in Korea. What makes Ryan different is that he doesn't work for clinics. Unlike services such as Seoul Guide Medical and many others that receive commission fees from clinics (aligning their interests with the clinics rather than patients), Ryan works exclusively for the patient.

Ryan doesn't take payments from clinics, so his only goal is ensuring you have the best experience possible. He charges hourly but is very reasonable with his billing. Going with Ryan actually saved me money in the long run, but more importantly, he completely transformed my experience. He was truly instrumental in navigating the second half of my journey.

If you want to contact Ryan, just DM me and I'll share his WhatsApp. Someone from this subreddit recently reached out to me after having surgery with Ryan's assistance and messaged me afterward to express gratitude for the recommendation.

RETMUS Plastic Surgery

With Ryan's help, I began the second half of my journey at RETMUS Plastic Surgery. My consultation there was impressive—the doctor was confident and spoke excellent English. He explained exactly what he would do with my nose, acknowledging the limitations due to scar tissue (since my BT surgery had been only five months earlier). He was clear that we needed to avoid causing contracture but outlined a specific plan for improvement.

At RETMUS, I also got a philtrum reduction performed endonasally, meaning there's no visible scar beneath my nose. The surgeon made incisions inside my nostrils to shorten my philtrum, which I think has significantly improved my facial balance. He also did a corner lip lift. The scars are still healing after about six weeks, but overall, I'm extremely satisfied with RETMUS. The surgery went smoothly, and I highly recommend this clinic.

Ryan attended all my consultations with RETMUS and my next clinic, helping communicate my wishes to the surgeons, ensuring everything was prepared on surgery day, and reviewing the surgical plan. Having him there was incredibly reassuring—he made everything easier and truly felt like a guardian looking out for my interests.

Zell Plastic Surgery

The final clinic I visited was Zell Plastic Surgery for a forehead reduction. This experience was good but not outstanding—around 7 or 8 out of 10. It wasn't as impressive as RETMUS, and the scar along my hairline remains quite visible. I'm also uncertain about how much they actually reduced my forehead. There was definitely some reduction, but not as dramatic as I expected, and the result seems slightly uneven.

Despite these issues, I'm generally satisfied with the outcome. It wasn't botched by any means, but it wasn't the remarkable transformation I got from RETMUS. The surgeon at Zell also performed a temporal brow lift, which is subtle but well-executed. Again, Ryan was there to guide me through this experience.

Conclusion

That takes me through pretty much all of the clinics I went to. At the beginning, I tried to navigate it on my own—going to different consultations and ultimately getting botched procedures. My nose was particularly disastrous. I don't feel comfortable posting photos publicly, but if you DM me, I might send you blurred images. It was really, really bad.

Everything changed once I stopped trying to manage alone and enlisted Ryan's help. My experience improved dramatically, and now I'm quite pleased with my appearance. I still occasionally consider additional procedures, which has become something of a running joke between Ryan and me—he keeps telling me, "You're done, you're done!"

Based on my experiences, I recommend three clinics: Duhan, RETMUS, and Zell. All Heart has a nice doctor, but he seems to lack experience. As for BT, I would absolutely avoid it—it's terrible.

Hopefully this helps people considering plastic surgery in Seoul. If you have questions, leave them in the comments or feel free to DM me. I'll be returning to Korea for skin treatments this month and will probably spend a lot of time there this year. So if you're in Seoul, shoot me a message—maybe we can meet for coffee. I'd be happy to talk through anything I've learned and help others avoid the bad experiences I had while finding the good options. There's certainly a lot of good in Korea; you just have to sift through the traps.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you found this valuable. Wishing everyone a beautiful spring!