Red Magazine

Red Magazine

2011

‘An end to eye bags?’

Beauty Editor Caroline Brien

describes her experience of

having eyelid surgery.

An End To Eye Bags?

Realising that her under-eye puffiness was genetic, rather than late-night-induced, Caroline Brien turned to a surgical solution.

Confession of a beauty writer number one: at 36, I am no stranger to Botox. Not so much that it turns my forehead to stone but, instead, used subtly as a line fighter. No biggie.

Confession of a beauty writer number two: it was the night before a procedure to flatten the persistent puffy bags under my eyes that it sunk in I was going to have proper cosmetic surgery. And I was suddenly petrified. BIG biggie.

Absurd as it sounds, until that point, I’d been so excited about my new post-eight-hours’-sleep eyes that I’d ignored the reality of the operation itself. But, in my hospital gown, having my pre-surgery check in a London clinic, the anticipation of the results was cancelled out by the thought that someone was about to take a scalpel to my eyes. How sedated would I be? How much pain would I be in afterwards? And just what would I look like the next day?

That’s not to say I had arrived at my decision to have surgery on a whim. As I entered my thirties, I began to notice that after a late night and one glass of vino too many, there was no escaping the tell-tale puffiness under my eyes the next morning. Creams and cover up disguised a little, but not completely.

One weekend, visiting my parents, I took a close look at my father, and realised he, too, had perpetual under-eye puffiness. That’s when I started to suspect that mine was more a genetic, that a lifestyle, problem. By 36, it was clear that the bags under my eyes simply weren’t going to shift. No amount of sleep or de-puffing eye cream had any effect. The bags had become fully formed luggage.

Knowing that the situation would only get worse, I considered my treatment options. I began researching lower blepharoplasty - cosmetic surgery to tighten the under-eyes and remove bags. I learnt that, with age, fat starts to move around the eye, forming bags and ruining the smooth under-eye contours of youth. Surgery - done well - is supposed to restore the area to its former youthful flatness. However, as your face changes continually, so your eye bags can be back in full force 10 years later.

I spoke to fellow beauty editors about having surgery, including one veteran who couldn’t recommend it highly enough. I decided to go ahead; I just needed to find a surgeon I could trust.

A chance conversation with a friend led me to a consultation with Dr Jesper Sorensen, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon. Honorary consultant plastic surgeon at University College London Hospitals, he specialises in microsurgery, delicate work under a highly powered microscope.

The original method, Dr Sorensen explained, that’s still in use after 50 years, is to make an incision below the lower lash line and remove the fat. However, he uses an updated technique called transconjunctival blepharoplasty, where he works from the inside of the lower lashes. It’s not so much nip and tuck, as slice and suck. ‘The lower eyelid has three layers,’ he said. ‘You have skin, muscle, then fat. Making the incision inside the lash line means the muscle stays strong and intact, which is vital, as it plays the biggest part in the prevention of sagging. Also, as there are no scars or stitches, the recovery time is minimised.’

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