My Story

Why I Did It

I'm not a clinic salesperson. I'm not an influencer selling you a dream. I'm just a woman in her 50s who travelled to Vietnam expecting one procedure — and came home after a journey that changed far more than my appearance.

MY STORY

MY STORY — WHY I DID IT

I wasn’t trying to look twenty-five or become somebody different. I just wanted to feel more like me again — and for the first time in quite a while, I did. I’d had cosmetic procedures before, including surgery overseas, so the idea of travelling for surgery wasn’t particularly frightening to me. In fact, for my 40th birthday, I’d had a mini lower facelift in Bangkok. I’ve never hidden the fact that I’ve had cosmetic surgery, and I don’t intend to start now. I’ve always been very open about it. If I’ve done something, I’ll tell you. If I loved the result, I’ll tell you. And if I didn’t? I’ll tell you that too. Because I’d also had surgery in Australia that I was deeply disappointed with. I’d had two tummy tucks, a breast lift and a lower blepharoplasty on the Gold Coast and was unhappy with all of the results. I’d also previously had a lower blepharoplasty in Brisbane with a highly regarded surgeon and, again, I was never happy with the result. Those experiences probably changed my thinking more than anything else. They taught me that having surgery in Australia does not automatically guarantee you’ll love the outcome, just as having surgery overseas does not automatically mean you’re compromising on care. It isn’t quite that simple. What matters is doing your homework, looking at results, understanding what you’re considering, asking questions and making decisions you are personally comfortable with. This Wasn’t About Trying to Look Twenty-Five For most of my forties, I didn’t think too much about ageing. Of course there were changes: a few extra lines, a little less firmness and the occasional photograph that made me wonder when certain parts of my face had decided to start heading south without consulting me first. But somewhere between my late forties and 53, I started noticing something many women quietly experience. The woman looking back at me in the mirror didn’t quite match the woman I still felt like inside. Inside, I was still me — active, working, travelling, building businesses, going out and living my life. I didn’t feel old. But there were moments when I’d catch myself in the mirror or see a photograph and think: When did that happen? And it wasn’t about wanting to become somebody else. Quite the opposite.
01

What Changed My Thinking

The thing that first made me take Vietnam seriously was seeing the results of women I actually knew.

A couple of friends had travelled there for cosmetic surgery, and when they came home, their results genuinely caught my attention. I’d seen them before and after in real life — no filters, no studio lighting, no carefully chosen angles.

They still looked like themselves — just refreshed, natural, rested and beautiful. Not overdone. Not “plastic”. And that was exactly what I wanted. That was probably the point where curiosity turned into serious interest. 

02

So Why Vietnam?

Vietnam wasn’t somewhere I’d suddenly plucked out of thin air. I’d already been there on holiday a few years earlier and loved it. But I’d also watched the country change enormously. For Australians, places like Bali and Thailand had long been familiar destinations for holidays, dental work and cosmetic procedures. Vietnam felt like it was having its own moment. More Australians were travelling there, Ho Chi Minh City had developed incredibly quickly, and the private medical and cosmetic sector had grown alongside it. Then there was something else that kept appearing in my research. Korea.

South Korea has become hugely influential in cosmetic surgery, particularly facial surgery, and I kept coming across references to Korean training, Korean techniques and Korean approaches to facial rejuvenation being used in Vietnam. That really caught my attention. Because what I was seeing was very different from the old-fashioned facelift look I absolutely did not want. I wasn’t interested in looking stretched. I wasn’t interested in having a face that announced from the other side of the room: SHE’S HAD WORK DONE. What appealed to me was the softer approach — repositioning, restoring shape, refining the jawline and neck, maintaining femininity and facial balance, and looking refreshed rather than radically altered. I wanted to look like Kirsty. Just a fresher version of her. And the more results I looked at, the more I understood why the women I knew had come home looking the way they did.

My goal is simple:
To share honest insights, lessons learned, and real experiences so you can make the decision that's right for you.
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They still looked like themselves — just refreshed, natural, rested and beautiful. Not overdone. Not plastic.

WHAT CHANGED MY THINKING

Why Vietnam appealed to me

✈️

Already loved the country

I had holidayed in Vietnam before and watched it change enormously — Ho Chi Minh City had developed incredibly quickly.

KR

Korean techniques

References to Korean training and approaches kept appearing — softer repositioning, not the stretched facelift look I did not want.

👩

Real results from real women

Friends I knew came home looking refreshed and natural. That was exactly what I wanted — to look like Kirsty, just fresher.

Then I Started Researching Properly

Once I became serious, I started digging. I looked at surgeons, before-and-after photographs and different facelift techniques. I spoke to women who had actually been there and asked a ridiculous number of questions. I wanted to know what happened when they arrived, what the hospital was like, how communication worked, who translated, how long they stayed, what recovery actually felt like, what they liked, what they didn’t and, most importantly: Would they go back? Eventually, I reached the point where I thought: Right. I’m going.

I Thought I Was Going for One Surgery

I went to Vietnam thinking I was having a facelift.

That was the plan.

I’d had a mini lower facelift at 40, and now at 53 I felt ready to do something more substantial. I’d researched a SMAS facelift and assumed that was what I would have.

But once I arrived and met the surgeons in person, the plan changed.

After examining me properly, the facial surgeon recommended a deep plane facelift instead and explained why he believed it would give me a better result.

From there, one conversation led to another.

By the end of the trip, what had started as one planned facelift had turned into a much bigger nine-day surgical journey.

That’s really where the story begins.person that simply weren’t obvious from photographs, and suddenly I was having conversations I hadn’t expected, hearing about options I hadn’t considered and making decisions I certainly hadn’t planned for before I left Australia.

What Surprised Me About the Hospital Experience

The hospital I personally attended was Gangwhoo Cosmetic Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. What surprised me was how structured the international patient process was. Before travelling, I communicated through a patient liaison officer on WhatsApp. I could send photographs, ask questions, discuss procedures, receive preliminary quotes, ask about recovery, confirm travel dates and clarify the things that inevitably occur to you at ridiculous hours when you're sitting in Australia thinking about having surgery in another country. Once I arrived, I was assigned an interpreter. And he stayed with me through virtually everything — medical assessments, consultations, payments, hospital admissions, food, questions, seeing the surgeons and right up until theatre. I was also surprised by how international the hospital felt. I met people from Australia, Canada, England, America, Singapore, Vietnam and other parts of Asia. There were women, men, different ages and different procedures.

Very quickly, the whole thing stopped feeling as foreign as I had imagined it might. People were simply there having procedures and recovering. It became surprisingly normal.

Travelling Alone Was Easier Than I Expected

I travelled to Vietnam alone. Now, I should say that I’ve travelled extensively throughout my life, so getting on an international flight by myself wasn’t particularly daunting for me. But travelling alone for surgery is obviously different. Beforehand, you think about all sorts of things: how will I get around, what if nobody understands me, what if I need food, what if I need something from a pharmacy, and what happens if I don’t feel well enough to leave the apartment? In reality, technology made almost all of it remarkably easy. Grab became my version of Uber, Uber Eats and everything else rolled into one. Cars, food, groceries, coffee, things delivered to the hospital and things delivered to my accommodation. Translation apps made everyday communication easier. WhatsApp kept me connected to the hospital team. And ChatGPT became my travel planner, translator, accommodation researcher and general source of: Right, what do I do now? I’d researched the trip so thoroughly using it that by the time I arrived, I already knew roughly where I was staying, what was around me, how far places were and what I might realistically feel like doing during recovery. That took a huge amount of uncertainty out of travelling alone.
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"Grab" is their Uber, Uber Eats and literally anything you want or need delivered.

You don't need to leave your hotel if you don't too

The Cost

There’s no point pretending cost doesn’t play a significant part in the decision-making process. I’d already spent a lot of money on cosmetic surgery in Australia and hadn’t always been happy with the results, so when I started comparing what I’d been quoted here with the costs in Vietnam, the difference was hard to ignore.

But cheaper alone would never have been enough to make me go.

If I hadn’t liked the results I was seeing, I wouldn’t have gone. If the women I knew had come home unhappy, I wouldn’t have gone. And if the techniques hadn’t interested me, I wouldn’t have gone.

The cost caught my attention. The results are what got me on the plane.

I’ll go into the actual numbers elsewhere, because they deserve a proper breakdown. But one thing the experience taught me is this: price and value are not the same thing.

The cheapest option isn’t always the best, and the most expensive option isn’t automatically the best either.

What I learnt about cost

💰

Cost caught my attention

The difference between what I’d been quoted in Australia and the costs in Vietnam was substantial — but price alone was never going to make the decision for me.

💫

The results convinced me

What really mattered was seeing women I knew come home happy with their results. That’s what gave me the confidence to seriously consider Vietnam.

⚖️

Price and value aren’t the same

The cheapest option isn’t always the best, and the most expensive doesn’t automatically mean better. For me, it came down to the overall experience, results and value.

What I Took Away From It

COST GOT MY ATTENTION
The results made the decision.

NOT EVERYTHING WAS EASY
Some parts surprised me. Some challenged me.


I LEARNT A LOT
Including things I didn’t even know to ask.

I’D DO SOME THINGS DIFFERENTLY
And some exactly the same.

WOULD I DO IT AGAIN?
Absolutely.

Why I Created The Beauty Guides

The Beauty Guides grew out of all the conversations that happened afterwards. Women weren’t necessarily asking me to make decisions for them. They wanted to know what I had experienced. They wanted somebody to tell them the things the glossy websites didn’t — the awkward bits, the practical bits, the funny bits, the things I got wrong, the things that surprised me, the things I absolutely loved and the things I wish I’d understood before I went. That is what The Beauty Guides is about. It isn’t here to tell you which surgeon to choose. It isn’t here to tell you which hospital to use. It isn’t here to recommend that you have cosmetic surgery at all. Those decisions are yours. What I can do is tell you what happened to me. Other women can tell you what happened to them. We can share the stories, the practical information and the lessons we learnt. And if there is somebody we personally know or have dealt with that you would like further information from, we can put you in contact with them. What you do with that information is entirely up to you. Because this was never meant to become: “Do what Kirsty did.” Quite the opposite. It is: “This is what Kirsty did. This is what happened. This is what she learnt. Now decide what matters to you.” That is the reason The Beauty Guides exists. And if something I experienced can make another woman feel a little more informed, a little less overwhelmed and better prepared to make her own decision, then every part of this journey was worth sharing.

READY TO TAKE THE NEXT STEP?

Still have questions, or ready to take the next step?

The Complete Beauty Guide is everything from my Vietnam experience in one place: five surgeries in nine days, plus the planning, travel, hospital stay, recovery, costs, and what I'd do differently. It's 10 chapters, with checklists, templates and downloads in your own customer portal. It's the resource I wish I'd had before I went. No obligation. The free stories and info across the site are yours to use as much as you like. If you still have a question Message me on Messenger. I'll reply personally, whether you're curious about my experience, have trip questions, or want me to connect you with a hospital liaison in Vietnam.
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