Upside Down Double Eyelid Surgery

Spring, 2011

In a two year old article we just stumbled upon, Jenny from the Geek in Heels observed a curiously high prevalence of Korean celebrities "who have large fat deposits under their eyes" and wondered whether "puffy under-eyes now counted as a desirable trait."

Our initial reaction was -- huh?

Noting that a crease on the upper lid tends to make the eye look bigger (an optical illusion), the author postulated that perhaps the same phenomenon might be in play on the lower lids. But she astutely qualified her idea by noting that she was "not talking about the under-eye bags that come with age" but the "genetic kind -- the extra deposit of fatty tissue that some people have even at a young age."

To test her hypothesis, she Photoshopped away these "bags" on two celebrities and then compared their befores and afters:

lower eyelid bags

lower lid bags

She's right. By smoothing out the lower eyelids, the "eyes" now appear smaller (again, an optical illusion). Having the fullness present creates a depression just below it (a concavity below the convexity), almost like having a flipped-over crease on the lower lid.

Jenny Geek then noted that she "would not be surprised if a few years down the line, I start reading advertisements for under-eye deposit surgeries."

APSG Comment: We've written on this topic before. The youthful fullness Miss Geek is talking about is not really a "bag" of fat but rather a roll of muscle (the orbicularis muscle, or closing muscle) that bunches up slightly with smiling or squinting. It's common in younger people of both Asian and European descent, but then flattens out with age-related thinning of the muscle.

And Jenny, guess what? In Korea (but almost nowhere else), there is indeed an operation done to create precisely this same lower bulge/depression: the "Love Band" operation, in which a strip of cadaver skin (yes, dead skin) is implanted under the patient's skin in the area just below the lashes to mimic (or enhance) a thicker eyelid muscle.

Previously, we believed the goal of this oddball operation was to make aging eyes look younger, but now we think that explanation is wrong (even if the surgeons and patients themselves fully don't understand this either).

The main attraction of the Love Band operation is that it divides (or "doubles") the lid into two visible segments, which some feel makes an eye look bigger and more opened, just as it does in people who undergo Asian double eyelid surgery on the upper lids.

In the West, by the way, these same anatomical changes are common: muscle fullness high on the lid present during youth followed by gradual thinning during the thirties and forties. However in contrast to patients in Korea, nobody of European descent ever requests a Love Band operation. Making the eyes appear bigger is just not a pressing Western desire.

Now we understand why. The Love Band operation: it's upside-down double eyelid surgery. So what do you think about it?

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