I Hate My Droopy Eyelid. So, Here's What I Did

For as long as I can remember, I’ve hated my eyelids. More specifically, I’ve hated my left eyelid. My right one is just fine.

My uncle had a droopy left eyelid, and my mother has always been fond of sharing the fact that I got this — technically called amblyopia — from him. Not that it was a good thing, for sure. It was a constant reminder that something in my face needed fixing.

To be fair, I wouldn’t have noticed my droopy eyelid without the repeated comments on it. I’ve never been too bothered about the way I look, but that droopy eyelid sure had some hold on my family.

Eyelid surgery — blepharoplasty — has been suggested multiple times. A date was set. I was to finally fix my lazy eye the summer between high school and college, which, my mother informed me, would give me a fresh start. No one would ever know that I used to have a droopy eye.

During a blepharoplasty, a surgeon cuts the fold of the eyelid, removes some skin or muscle or fat, and sews you up again. After the surgery, I’d have to sleep with my head raised, I would need dark sunglasses for a little while and I would have to avoid doing anything strenuous that could slow my recovery.

I’ve always been a fan of plastic surgery. If someone is unhappy with the way they look, and a little cutting and dicing would help, then I’m all for it. At the same time, I haven’t liked the results I’ve seen. From the disfigured housewives on Bravo to those with ongoing health problems related to their plastic surgery, I’ve never been super impressed.

So, I decided to try other options before bringing in the big doctors. I spent too many hours Googling “how to fix droopy eyelids without surgery.” My options included Botox, hyaluronic acid fillers, eye exercises and cold compresses.

I tried the last two: pressing my finger on my eyelid to manually fix it (major fail), and slicing cucumbers like a boss, applying them to my eyelids as if I were a chopped salad. Needless to say, these attempted fixes did nothing but make me smell like a patch of freshly cut grass. Not bad, but not my top choice either. My droopy eyelid refused to be awakened, and surgery was back on the table.