Albert Cho took to social media to share his regret about injectables. Photo / @albertcho
Albert Cho took to social media to share his regret about injectables. Photo / @albertcho
An influential Aucklander wants to make a point about beauty standards. Albert Cho took to Instagram this week to share his experience with Botox and fillers, joining the growing number of people expressing regret about appearance medicine. He tells the NZ Herald why he came clean, and appearance medicine expert Dr Sarah Hart explains why he’s not alone, and how this could have been prevented.
With a large social media following — 90,000 on his @eatlitfood Instagram account — and an influential position, hospitality figure Albert Cho is well known for his frank opinions and unfiltered approach. Usually, though not always, reserved to food, this week he turned his focus to something more personal; his former “addiction” to fillers and Botox, revealing how extreme this habit became, why he stopped and advice for those considering treatments.
In a video posted to TikTok and Instagram, he reveals that he started getting treatments as a teenager, with a mix of fillers and Botox in his forehead, nose bridge, cheeks and chin. “I had body dysmorphia,” he tells followers in the clip. “I thought I looked great. After continued treatments — “an addiction” that required more and more filler to prevent sagging, in what he describes as “a never-ending vicious cycle” —the effect became extreme: widening cheeks, shrinking eyes. “Rock bottom” was a photograph taken at an event, which provided a wake-up call for Cho, who says he hasn’t touched his face in three years.
Why did he start getting filler in the first place? And how did he stop?
“I was a model, and my Korean agency was very big on keeping my youth,” he tells NZ Herald. “And looking quite androgynous was my thing.”
Common, cheap and accessible, plastic surgery is very normalised in Korea he explains, describing how he could go to a clinic, take a number and, without showing ID, tell them what he wanted. “They’d just do it, you don’t even have to book.”
He believed subscribing to these beauty standards and enhancing a youthful look was in his best interest professionally. “I was always told by my agency that a baby face is what got you booked,” he says. “I thought that was my strength.”
However, as he outlines in the video and explains to the NZ Herald, “It’s a vicious cycle.”
He describes his mindset as something like reverse body dysmorphia, where he thought he looked great, even though the injectables were having extreme effects on his face.
It took, of all things, a global pandemic to stop this addictive pattern of behaviour. “If Covid hadn’t happened, I’d still be in that state of mind where I thought I looked better with [fillers and botox],” Cho says.
Amidst the pandemic restrictions, beauty clinics had to close and their clientele was forced to go cold turkey. It turned out to be the circuit breaker he needed, and his face began to return to its natural state. “I realised I was looking better,” he says. “It showed me a different perspective on how I look.”
However, simply stopping the treatments wasn’t enough; there was too much damage.
“My nose was as hard as a knuckle,” he said candidly on Instagram, a truth that surfaced when he kissed someone and they noticed the filler build up in his face. “It wasn’t going way naturally,” he continues. “I need to go to the doctor to get it dissolved.” It wasn’t an overnight fix. His face “dropped” — the “deflating phase” — and he looked tired for months.
Was his experience normal or common?
Respected industry leader and medical professional Dr Sarah Hart tells NZ Herald she found Cho’s story poignant, and applauds his decision to share it so openly.
“His honesty highlights the potential negatives of injectables, helping others make better choices,” she says. “It’s a real shame he’s had this experience because so many things that went wrong with his journey are preventable. This is a buyer-beware field; it does require savvy navigation to find an injector who will provide the right results for you.”
Was he too young when he started injectables? “I believe it’s rarely appropriate to treat a 19-year-old with toxin and filler for purely cosmetic reasons. Although there’s a lack of solid research about the effects of starting early, most reputable practitioners agree it is not necessary to start so young to reduce skin ageing, despite what marketing claims say. Let me repeat. It is not necessary to have Botox before you can see the fine crease of a wrinkle at rest,” she stresses, explaining many young people are impressionable, making them psychologically vulnerable to marketing and impulsive decisions — risky in an industry with lax regulations.
“Secondly, as Albert described, many of us are insecure and impressionable when we’re so young. This makes us psychologically vulnerable to marketing and at risk of impulsive decisions. As a result, it’s hard to navigate the world of injectables safely because regulations are lax.”
She also expresses concern about filler use in people experiencing lower body weight. “Usually, filler is used to treat the permanent facial fat loss that occurs with ageing. It’s unusual to treat temporary fat loss in a young person caused by weight loss with filler, as if the patient approaches their former body weight, the additional face plumping effect of filler becomes too much.”
How easy is it to fall into a skewed view of your appearance? “The concept of ‘perception drift’ can lead people to see their faces incorrectly. Once you get used to your bigger lips, they start to look smaller, so you continue to seek treatment.”
Dissolving fillers can be “distressing” admits Hart, though a loss in skin elasticity — or the much-reported “sagging” has yet to be clinically proven. “Whether the skin elasticity is worse than before, or simply seems so when returning to their original face, has not been elucidated yet. There’s certainly a theoretical possibility that significantly overfilling the face could stretch the skin, just like pregnancy stretches your abdominal skin.”
As more New Zealanders consider how they approach their appearance, and cosmetic surgery, Hart sees two main trends. “The first is the ‘positive agers’ who are horrified at the thought of looking unnatural and wish to preserve their original face,” she says. The second, younger, group seek a bolder look (dubbed “Instagram Face”) the “glamour” of big lips and contoured cheeks. “This is a more recent trend, spurred on by discount clinics that rely on injecting big volumes of filler as a business model,” she explains. “It will be interesting to see the long-term effects for these patients as they age.”
Why did he decide to come clean on social media?
Cho noticed this second cohort too. As he grew more comfortable with his natural face, conversely, he saw more and more people dabble with botox and fillers — particularly when he became more active on TikTok.
After witnessing the amount of content on the platform that normalised (and minimised) injectables, Cho felt motivated to “use his platform for good” and share his experience.
Albert Cho says he looks forward to ageing. Photo / @albertcho
“There’s a real sense of people being open and honest about filler,” he says, and users share their injectables as part of their daily routine.
“But it’s gotten to the point that they’re treating it like nothing,” he says. “People are doing this very casually, but it’s a procedure that people should really think about.
“That’s why I did it,” explains Cho of his post.
“I had so many negative experiences [with injectables],” he says, and while other peers could relate — and indeed, many of his younger friends were expressing a desire to get injectables — no one was discussing the downsides or their regrets publicly. “If people knew the aftermath, they wouldn’t do it.”
Cho joins a choir of people sharing their experience
There’s a growing contingent sharing regrets about how far they took injectables, and it’s resonating with audiences. “People are just appreciating honesty a little bit more these days,” Cho says.
Friends’ star Courtney Cox revealed last year that being overzealous with facial fillers was her “biggest beauty regret” and that she “messed up a lot”. Younger stars are being frank too, like Ariana Grande, who told US Vogue that she overdid it with filler.
This movement isn’t unexpected, and beauty — like fashion and decor — is cyclical. “I definitely think there is a bit of a shift happening, it’s a trend.”
This can partly be ascribed to experiences like Cho’s, but also to the pendulum of aspiration: once it becomes accessible or affordable, a previously exclusive commodity loses its cachet.
“I definitely think, especially in the Western world, it’s a status symbol for many people,” he agrees. “Now that everyone is doing it the special factor has worn off.”
Ageing is, increasingly, being appreciated in the public eye; Cho thinks the positive reactions to Pamela Anderson’s radically bare face have been interesting, and acknowledges that women have it a lot harder than men, for whom ageing is “seen as a positive thing”.
Now, seven years after those first injections, how does he feel about ageing?
“For me, I am really excited about my face growing older,” he says. “I’m looking more and more like a man, rather than a boy.”
“It’s a privilege to have your life on your face.”
“You must do extensive research to find a good injector.”
See a doctor. “There’s only one Medical Council recognised qualification for doctors [in New Zealand], the two-year Diploma of Cosmetic Medicine,” she says. “However, there’s no official qualification for non-doctors, with some injectors only completing training courses of a few weeks’ duration.”
“Proper facial analysis by your injector using good clinical photography is crucial to determine if more treatment is really needed.”
“It’s important to understand that all faces are slightly asymmetrical, and that’s okay,” Hart says. “Tweaking continuously to get perfect symmetry is likely to lead to a distorted look.”
“When filler is first placed, it is firmer and swollen. This swelling can make the skin glow,” she explains, and makes your face feel tight and lifted. “As the filler settles over the next few weeks, it softens and drops slightly and transitions into a final result. The best injectors adjust their injecting to account for this.”
Overfilled cheeks can be a result of overly frequent treatments. “Well-trained practitioners will sensitively decline treatment in such a situation, avoiding overfilling.”
Used correctly, “there’s nothing like [filler] for replacing the permanent loss of facial fat that occurs with ageing”.
“Filler results are best viewed in 3D by an observer in real life, or in three-quarter-angle photos.”
Gender impacts filler use. “Creating a masculine look requires filler in different places than a feminine look. For women, it’s all about cheek filler; for men, it’s about enhancing an angular jawline and square chin.”
“Temporary dissolvable filler can last many years. This means dissolver is usually needed to completely get rid of filler accumulated over multiple treatments,” she says. “It’s not always necessary to dissolve. In general, smaller amounts of softer filler will break down more easily.”
“Not all types of filler are dissolvable. Only hyaluronic acid.”
Many practitioners take a gradual approach to the dissolving. “Of course, it’s best not to overfill the face in the first place.”
