Forehead Wrinkles When Raising Eyebrows: Treat on Day One

Do the forehead wrinkles when raising eyebrows show up in every photo, and you're wondering whether a short trip to Seoul is long enough to deal with them?

For most people it is, as long as you treat early in the trip. A wrinkle-relaxing injection usually starts softening those lines within 2 to 4 days and reaches its full effect around day 10 to 14. A session on your first or second day lets you see most of the change before you fly home.

Hello, I'm Dr. Hongseok Kim, a board-certified dermatologist and Medical Director of VOS Dermatology Clinic in Gangnam.

I have 21 years of clinical experience, and I do every consultation and every procedure myself, so the person who decides how much goes above your brows is the person holding the syringe. For these lines we primarily use a highly purified product without complexing proteins. You also get a medical interpreter for your language at no extra charge.

Two photos are enough to start: your forehead at rest and your brows fully raised, sent on WhatsApp with your arrival date. Ask whether your lines are the moving kind or the etched kind. The consult is free.

Why do the lines show only when your brows go up?

Only one muscle lifts your eyebrows: the frontalis, a thin sheet running from the brows up into the scalp. Each time it contracts, the skin above it folds into horizontal pleats, a bit like a shirt sleeve pushed up your forearm. Push the sleeve back down and the fabric lies flat again. That is a movement line.

Forehead wrinkles when raising eyebrows that vanish once your face relaxes are the type a wrinkle-relaxing injection handles well, because the injection reduces how hard the muscle pulls. Lines that stay visible at rest behave differently. After years of folding, the skin creases like a sleeve pushed up so often the fabric keeps the fold. Relaxing the muscle softens those lines, but one visit rarely erases them.

Try this at a window in daylight: look straight ahead with your face completely relaxed. If you can still see the lines, part of what you're seeing is in the skin itself. For etched lines and crepey texture, I go through other options in my piece on matching each type of wrinkle to a treatment. Fine crinkling around the eyes is a separate question, covered in the post on Rejuran i for the eye area.

How fast does it work, day by day?

The timeline below is the general pattern for wrinkle-relaxing injections in the forehead. Your own face may run a day or two ahead or behind.

The two-week mark matters more than people expect. Until then, one side can still catch up with the other, so a slightly uneven lift on day 4 tells you very little. On day 12, it tells you a lot.

The last row matters too. These injections wear off, and people who like the result usually repeat it a few times a year. If you live far from Seoul, think about that rhythm before your first session, because a forehead treated once and never again simply returns to how it was.

How many days do you need in Seoul?

The injection itself takes minutes, and you can walk out and carry on with your day. What decides your trip length is whether you want to be in Seoul when the result settles.

Say you're 28, teaching English in another Asian city, with a five-day break. Book the session for the morning after you land. When you fly back you're on day 3 or 4: the lines have started to soften, and you'll watch the rest arrive at home over the next week. That works for many foreheads. What it doesn't give you is the chance to have a slightly uneven brow looked at in person at two weeks.

With about two weeks, the calendar is easier. Treat on day 1 or 2 and you'll still be in Seoul around day 12, when unevenness, if there is any, is clear. If your forehead has never been treated before, or your brows already sit low, I'd lean toward that longer window.

On the day itself, plan nothing that presses on your forehead. The usual advice after these injections is to keep hands, tight hat bands and face-down massage tables off the area for the rest of the day, and to leave hard workouts, saunas and the jjimjilbang until the next day. Flying afterwards is fine.

Worth knowing: VOS is closed on Wednesdays, Sundays and public holidays. Land on a Tuesday night and your first possible appointment is Thursday at 10:00, which pushes your two-week mark back by two days. Friday runs until 20:00 and Saturday 10:00–16:00 with no lunch break, which helps if you arrive at the end of the week.

If your flights are already booked, put the dates in your WhatsApp message and ask which day of your stay to choose. Working backward from your departure day is what makes a short trip fit.

How I approach forehead lines above heavy eyelids

Most first-timers don't know about this part. Some people raise their brows all day without noticing, because their upper lids are slightly hooded and lifting the brows clears their view. Their forehead lines are partly a workaround.

Relax that whole muscle and the brows drop a few millimetres, the lids feel heavier, and you spend the next three months looking tired. With a forehead like that, I'd rather leave the lowest band above the brows some movement and treat higher up, accepting softer lines over flat ones. I commit to the exact amount your muscle needs, never more and never less, because in the forehead too much does more harm than too little.

The frown area between the brows matters too. Those muscles pull the brows down while the forehead lifts them, so treating only one side of that tug-of-war can change where your brows rest. Doctors usually weigh the two together.

If your brows sit low because the skin has loosened with age, relaxing the forehead won't fix it. Lifting energy fits that situation better, and I explain who it suits in my guide to Ultherapy Prime in Korea.

Doctor's note

On foreheads, I'd rather you leave with a little movement and come back for more than leave with heavy brows you have to wait out for three months. A forehead that still moves slightly looks like yours. That trade-off is what the consultation is for, and it comes before anything is injected.

Brow drop, heavy lids, bruising: what can go wrong

The common reactions are small and short: bumps at the injection points that settle within the hour, a pinpoint bruise that can take about a week to fade, and sometimes a mild headache in the first day or two.

Less common is a brow that drops or feels heavy, or the opposite, an outer brow that arches into a sharp peak. A peaked brow can usually be smoothed with a small extra amount once the effect has settled at around two weeks. A dropped brow can't be undone with another injection; it eases as the effect wears off over weeks to months. Results vary between people, and a first treatment shows how your particular muscle responds.

Rarely, someone barely responds, and responses can weaken over many repeat treatments, partly through antibody formation. That's one reason we primarily use a product without complexing proteins. The drug label for this class also warns that the effect can, very rarely, spread beyond the injection site and cause trouble swallowing, breathing or speaking. If that happens, get emergency care wherever you are.

Risks and side effects to know

It's worth waiting, or skipping it, if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, have a neuromuscular condition such as myasthenia gravis, have an infection or active rash on the forehead, or have reacted to an ingredient before. Some medicines, including certain antibiotics, also affect nerve-muscle signalling, so bring a list of everything you take.

Once you're home, take photos on day 3, 7 and 14 in the same daylight and from the same angle, once with your brows relaxed and once raised. If a brow peaks or drops, those photos are what any doctor needs to see.

What decides the cost for your forehead?

There is no single forehead figure, because these things move it:

• How many areas you treat: the forehead alone, the forehead with the frown lines between the brows, or crow's feet as well. Each area counts separately.
• How strong your muscle is. A forehead that pulls hard needs more product than a thin, gentle one.
• Whether a small correction fits your trip. A touch-up at two weeks only happens if you're still in Seoul.
• Whether you add something for etched lines or skin texture, since a relaxing injection on its own doesn't change the skin.

The price list is the same whatever your nationality. Ask on WhatsApp what your forehead would cost, with the raised-brow photo attached. The deposit and how you pay are settled after the consultation, so you can ask about both in the same message.

Can you make the forehead itself smaller here?

Many people reading about forehead lines also look at forehead reduction surgery, hairline lowering, hair transplants for a high forehead, or Korean-style bangs. The first three are surgery. VOS is a dermatology clinic and I don't perform surgery, so I'm not the person to plan them.

Bangs are a styling choice. They can hide lines, but they don't change how the muscle moves. What I treat is the skin and the muscle under it: the lines themselves, brow position that comes from muscle pull, and skin quality.

Ultherapy Price in Korea: PRIME Shots, Eye and Programs go further into what usually comes next.

Before you message us

For a forehead that only creases when it moves, I think a light first treatment early in your trip is the right place to start. You can always add a little at two weeks. Taking it away isn't possible.

You don't have to settle the areas, the amount or your dates today. Send on WhatsApp a photo with your forehead relaxed, one with your brows raised, your flight dates, and the question that matters most for your trip, such as whether to stay until day 12 or head home on day 4. The consult is free. What decides the plan for your face is how low your brows rest when your forehead is completely still, so make that the first thing you ask about.

— Dr. Hongseok Kim, Medical Director

Results, timing and recovery vary from person to person. This article is general information from VOS Dermatology Clinic and does not replace an in-person consultation. Any prices mentioned are from the clinic’s official price list (KRW, before VAT) and may change.