Thread carefully: The dangers of the 'fox eye lift' fad

The experts weigh in on the quick non-surgical treatment influencers are dubbing the 'lunchtime lift'

Inspired by supermodels such as Bella Hadid and Kendall Jenner, fox eye thead lifts are the latest "fad".

If you’re on social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, then the chances are you have heard of or seen the latest trend in the world of beauty — the fox eye look.

Inspired by supermodels such as Bella Hadid and Kendall Jenner, tutorials on achieving this trend through makeup and even hairstyles are a regular feature on social media timelines. However, as the trend gains popularity, so do other methods of achieving the ‘feline’ look.

At the time of writing, #foxeyethreadlift has a whopping 64.3m views on TikTok while #threadlift has 143m views on the video-sharing app.

Model Bella Hadid is known for her distinctly feline eyes which some have speculated is a result of the 'fox eye lift' procedure (Photo by Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images)

The fox-eye thread procedure has been dubbed the ‘fox eye lift’ and involves inserting dissolvable threads under the skin around the eyebrow area in order to lift it to create an almond eye shape.

“They’re like cones with a little spike like a fishhook in it. They basically thread them through your skin and then they can pull on them and they can tighten everything up," explains Clinic Director at Amara Clinic, Ronan Butler. "It draws the skin together and creates a lift with it as well. It’s attempting to do essentially what a facelift does.” 

References to the popular trend appear in multiple other TikTok hashtags, however, many of the top videos are stories and warnings about how this procedure can go wrong.

Former Big Brother housemate Ryan Ruckledge, who was gifted the procedure to promote it to his followers, recently opened up about his experience after he was hospitalised following an infection. The influencer shared his story on TikTok as a warning to his 72k followers alongside stark images of the swelling. 

Following this,  Geordie Shore star Chloe Ferry also revealed her experience with the procedure, admitting that she had been putting off talking about it publicly for some time.

Picture: Chloe Ferry on Snapchat with some significant scarring from the fox eye lift.

“I feel like I need to tell everyone about my experience,” she wrote on Snapchat. “I had the same procedure as Ryan [Ruckledge], done seven months ago and still to this day I’m left with terrible scars on my face which may never go away.

“I’m seeing this procedure becoming increasingly more and more popular. This may not happen to everyone but as I’m left with scars seven months later I just wanted to take to social media just to let everyone know what had happened.” 

The 26-year-old says she is “so self-conscious” as a result of the large scars around her temples which were left behind following the procedure.

“I don’t ever rate myself or anything but the only thing I ever thought was good about me was I had good skin and now it's scarred. My job is to be filming all the time for TV, photoshoots etc. and now I’m so self-conscious about the outcome this has had on me.” 

Ronan Butler of Amara Clinic says a lot of things can go wrong, with complications such as infection and inflammation possible with such a procedure. 

Ronan Butler, clinic director at Amara Clinic, Dublin.

“You’re putting in little barbed hooks of threads, you’re driving them through the skin to create attachment and tighten things up. This stuff then dissolves over time, but it gives you a look,” he says.

“It’s not easy to remove this stuff and the risk of things like inflammation and swelling and then infection that can come along with that — all of that has just greatly increased. It’s a temporary attempt at something that is better addressed with surgical intervention.” 

Anatomically, it is also “exceptionally complicated” to carry out such a procedure around the eye area where the skin is much thinner.

“The skin is also very, very thin there and when you consider that you’re driving these essentially spikes through the skin, it’s very, very easy for the barbs to stick up and be exposed or to have bumps,” Mr Butler explains.

“It’s way thinner than the rest of the skin around your face. That for me, when it comes to this fox-eye fad treatment that’s going on, that’s probably the biggest issue — that the skin is really, really thin and what you’re trying to do is in a complicated area. You need to be really careful. You really need somebody that knows what they’re doing.” 

Dublin-based Amara Clinic has a specific section on its website about social media and cosmetic injections. Here, the clinic states that they are very aware of the role social media, influencers and celebrities can play in motivating some people to seek certain procedures.

“This is an issue within the industry. I’ve been in it for 11 or 12 years. There are these fads and fads come and go. Often, they’re just not really things that you want to be doing to your face,” Mr Butler says.

“A lot of these fads, they pop up from people just taking a chance and using things in a way that they are not specially meant to be used and then it just kind of takes off. You can see it yourself if you go on Instagram," he adds.

Many people seeking out trends such as the ‘fox eye lift’ are often younger and may not be able to afford someone who really knows what they are doing. Some may attend “backstreet” locations or even non-medical places for these treatments which Mr Butler says is a “recipe for disaster”.

As always, Mr Butler advises only attending an established medical aesthetics clinic when seeking such procedures.

“My advice to anybody seeking this stuff out is don’t follow a fad,” he says.