Gaining popularity in 2020 thanks to celebrities such as Kendall Jenner and Bella and Gigi Hadid, the Fox Eye Thread Lift has been trending on social media throughout 2021. #foxeye has over 180 thousand mentions on Instagram and 51.2m views on TikTok, both as a result of make-up styles and eyebrow shaping designed to create the elongated upwards almond shape, and thread lift aesthetic treatments, with clinics across the UK now offering this procedure.
What is the Fox Eye Thread Lift?
A Fox Eye Thread Lift allows clients to achieve a similar eye-shape to that of the Hadids without the use of make-up or eyebrow shaping. PDO or semi-permanent barbed threads are inserted at strategic points on the temple and forehead which when drawn on will hook under the skin and gently pull it back, lifting the skin around the eye up and out to create the desired upturned almond shape.
Critics of Fox Eye Thread Lifts
Like any new aesthetic treatment, this procedure has its critics. Generally, barbed thread lifts have a 15-20% complication rate, with risks including temple hematoma, thread infection, granuloma, thread snapping, suture migration, suture extrusion, and pain where the thread end meets the underside of the skin. Whilst these complications can be resolved relatively easily, both clients and aesthetic practitioners should be aware of the risk.
With the Fox Eye Lift, these risks are only increased. Normally, thread lifts are intended to create subtle improvements to lines and wrinkles, however this treatment relies on the threads creating a dramatic lift to the skin around the eye. Because of this, clients can be left with puckering and folding, as the skin has nowhere to go after being pulled up by the threads. Furthermore, as the skin around the eye can be thinner than elsewhere on the face, sutures can be visible through the skin following the procedure. Given that the dramatic effect created by the Fox Eye Thread Lift may only last three weeks, whether the results outweigh the risk of the procedure is debatable.
Beauty Meets Cultural Appropriation
In addition to the physical risks of the Fox Eye Lift, the procedure (in addition to the make-up styles and the instagram trend of pulling back the temples to create an elongated almond eye), has met with accusations of cultural appropriation and racism. Critics have commented that “a facial feature in which [asians] had once been ridiculed for was being turned into a beauty trend”, without empathy for the negative treatment many Asian people have experienced due to their eye shape.
The Future of the Fox Eye Thread Lift
It’s always difficult to tell whether certain aesthetic trends will stand the test of time. For now though, as clients from a range of age groups strive to emulate the look of models such as the Hadids, the Jenners and the Kardashians, the Fox Eye seems set to remain for the foreseeable future. We can only hope that clients are fully briefed on the risks and rewards of this treatment before undergoing the Fox Eye Thread Lift.
