This beauty trend could really fox you up.
At least that’s what Hannah Edwards, a woman who underwent the TikTok viral #FoxEyeLift procedure and experienced so much pain that she wanted to “die,” claims.
“It was honestly the worst pain I’ve ever felt,” Edwards, a 25-year-old nutrition student from Sydney, Australia, told NeedToKnow.Online. “The pain was so bad that I wanted to die, I didn’t think I could handle being in so much pain.”
In early January, Edwards scheduled a consultation for the fox eye-lift with a clinic, hoping its staffers would help her achieve the face of her dreams.
The controversial cosmetic enhancement is a nonsurgical treatment meant to transform rounded, hooded or droopy eyes into sleek, feline-like ovals.
During the procedure, biodegradable sutures are used to pull the skin near the outer corner of the eye back towards the temple. In the US, the embellishment costs around $2,050.
And the goal, for most patients, is to mimic the chicly angled orbs of A-listers such as model Bella Hadid and pop singer Ariana Grande.
“I was always bothered by my hooded, slightly drooping eyes,” said Edwards.
“I was often pulling up the corners of my eyes and seeing how much I preferred [the way] it looked being lifted,” continued the blonde belle. “So when I heard about thread lifts, I thought it was a great nonsurgical option.”
So in February, she sat for the 30-minute procedure, feeling “pretty confident” that she’d made the right decision.
However, shortly after leaving the clinic, Edwards feared that something had gone terribly wrong.
“As soon as I left, I was bleeding from the insertion sites and had extreme swelling on the corners of my brows,” she recalled.
“My brows were extremely lifted and looked quite exaggerated, but [I] was told this was perfectly normal and [that they] would settle over the next day or so.”
Despite the bleeding, Edwards didn’t feel any pain, initially, due to the anesthetics that were injected to numb her skin during the lift. But once the meds wore off, she found herself in excruciating pain.
“There was sharp pain at the insertion sights and pain going all the way through my scalp as that’s how far the threads were inserted,” she said. “Any brow or facial movements hurt.”
And, unfortunately, taking prescribed pain relievers to mitigate the sting didn’t help because she couldn’t “keep them down” and ultimately “vomited them up.”
After a week, the pain subsided. But her facial movements had been sorely compromised.
“Whenever I moved my brows I had a strange sensation in my scalp, it felt like I was wearing a wig as the threads were sitting under it,” said Edwards, adding that she experienced extreme sensitivity at the insertion sites.
“It took around three months before I could properly wash my hair but even then I couldn’t use a lot of pressure,” she lamented. “I couldn’t sleep on my side for around four months.”
And now that she’s recovered from the ordeal, Edwards — who hasn’t had her eyebrows tinted or waxed for fear any unnecessary pressure near her eye might reignite the pain — is vehemently discouraging others from getting the lift.
“Do not do it,” she implored.
“If you really want a brow lift, you’re better off getting actual surgery that will at least be permanent results and done by a surgeon.”
She’s also taken her plight to social media, urging her more than 900 TikTok followers to forgo this damaging trend.
In a clip with over 31,000 views, Edwards shared gory images of her profile after the procedure, including snapshots that feature blood dripping down her cheeks.
Spooked commentators left stunned remarks like, “Scary” and “Ima just glue my eyelash higher and call it a day.”
And in spite of the pain and the blood, Edwards says the most horrific side effect from the procedure was her inability to freely smile.
“When I had my really bad swelling and restricted facial mobility, it made me realize how much I love my facial expressions,” she told NeedToKnow. “I think in this day and age we’re so quick to want to eliminate lines and wrinkles and facial movements but that’s what makes us unique.
“I hated not having any expression in my face — don’t do it!”