02 Aug PSA: A Fox Eye “Browlift” is Not a Browlift—and Shouldn’t Be Performed in Gyms
The “fox eye look” was a social media trend last year that persists today, and although it is often called a “fox eye browlift,” it isn’t a brow lift at all. A real brow lift is performed by a reputable plastic surgeon and takes place in an operating room (OR). Unfortunately, this trend is not only a stubborn one but is also often a dangerous one. Recently, a TikTok influencer, Zoe Grace Tong, spoke up about her botched “browlift” which took place in a salon at the back of a gym. The 24-year-old British woman says the procedure was painful and she was left swollen and “bleeding so much.” According to Tong, “It was the most painful thing I had ever been through.”
So, what exactly is a fox eye browlift? It’s a minimally invasive procedure that places threads around the brow to create a temporary lift (like a fox) that is supposed to last about 18 months on average. It does technically lift the brow, but not in a surgical sense. It can work, but it is known for being painful and it is very easy to botch. For Tong, she says the procedure started with a numbing cream, which didn’t ultimately work, followed by several injections. “The injection site was my hairline,” she says, “it felt like it [the injections] was going right back into the back of my scalp.” Although painful, she says the left side was completely fine but on the right side she began to bleed profusely. Tong recalls that the provider said that, due to the bleeding, they could not place the last two threads. This, of course, led to an uneven appearance. “I told them I was frustrated as it was a Saturday and I would have to go out with uneven brows,” she says.
Browlifts Gone Bad
When Tong got home, things got worse as Tong saw she had a black eye. “I left and was told to ice my face, I was also not booked in for any follow-up appointment,” she explains on TikTok (where she also shared photos of her face after the procedure). The next day, she sneezed and says the entire right side of threads “dropped” while the left side remained lifted. “I was devastated,” she said. “I didn’t even want to go downstairs let alone in public with a fully dysmorphic face.” Tong drove back to the salon, disguised with sunglasses, but found that the providers were not there. She waited and called dozens of times until they finally picked up—but when a follow-up was booked, they said she looked “fine” and that nobody could tell the difference between the brows. “They said that there is no going back and you can’t take them out so they ended up adding in the last PDF thread,” she says.
Two months later, Tong says her brows were nearly back to normal. She warns that fox eye browlifts are a “complete waste of money and a massive reality check that changing things that don’t need to be changed isn’t always worth it.” She says she still regrets that experience, but it was a wakeup call for her. Of course, a real brow lift, performed by a board-certified surgeon, is completely different. And that’s what you can get at RefinedMD.
Real Browlift Benefits
A browlift is (or should be!) a surgery that repositions the forehead to reduce wrinkles. It is often combined with an upper and/or lower blepharoplasty (eyelid lift). Our skin loses elasticity with age, and gravity can also pull the brow down causing frown lines, horizontal lines, and sagging that makes you look older and more tired than you are. A brow lift doesn’t change the eye shape, but instead removes or drastically reduces lines on the forehead, the bridge of the nose, and corrects sagging eyebrows. Browlifts are relatively common, with 88,000 browlifts performed in the U.S. alone on average every year. Women are the most common patients, but men make up 10 percent of those who get a browlift.
There are different kinds of browlifts including the classic lift (which requires one continual incision ear to ear), the endoscopic lift that calls for shorter incisions along the scalp, and the limited incision technique which combines the two. The endoscopic lift is by far the most popular. To find out more, including which type of lift is best for you, schedule a consultation with RefinedMD today. Contact us by giving us a call during business hours or filling out the online contact form now.