Lauren Schulz took a "long time" to decide she was ready to get plastic surgery. When she finally underwent her long-awaited procedure, what she experienced were side effects that put her in shock and a slew of online hate that made it "very hard to trust the process."
On Dec. 12, Schulz, a 31-year-old photographer from Melbourne, Australia, underwent a lower blepharoplasty to address the under-eye bags that had been a "huge insecurity" of hers, so much so that she went through the effort of editing them out of photos.
"I constantly looked tired. I was told filler and Rejuran [a popular Korean injectable that boosts collagen through an ingredient extracted from salmon DNA] wouldn't work with my particular eye shape and was something I'd have to continue going back for," she tells PEOPLE, adding that the feature is genetic and that surgery was "the most permanent solution" to get her desired results. She paid $6,000 AUD (which is roughly $4,000 USD) for the surgery.
Although there were no severe post-op complications to worry about, Schulz experienced the bruising, swelling and running blood from her eyes that she says is "bound to come with getting your eyelids sliced open." That, combined with the noticeable netted stitching holding her repositioned fat from the surgery in place, made looking in the mirror a "jump scare."
"I was in shock as soon as I saw myself with the stitches and swollen eyes," she says, "but I trusted the process," which proved more difficult with the "online bullying" she was handling during her recovery.
Shortly after going under the knife, Schulz decided to honestly share what she was going through in real time on her TikTok page, where she was posting her photography work under her website, Lauren Schulz Visuals, at the same time. With her unfiltered "after" photos came the cruel opinions on her appearance. Everyone, from random viewers to even surgeons, seemed to think Schulz was "botched." Her response: "People get a certain confidence hiding behind a private account and bullying someone."
Then, she noticed an immediate change in the tone of her comments when, on Dec. 18, she posted a video of her healed results -- no swelling, no bruising and faded scars. "As soon as the stitches were out, I had the confidence I'd be able to show all of those people that they were wrong. It's amazing how fast people ate their words," she says, adding, "It really went to show that people are so used to seeing before and afters of surgery, but not really the middle."
By day four of her recuperation, Schulz wrote on TikTok that she began to recognize herself again, and by the next day, she was already seeing "the vision." Today, she already feels "such a confidence boost" and is excited for her results to fully settle within the next few weeks. "I feel like I look so much more awake; it’s really livened up my facial features."
Schulz is overall "very happy" with her results and doesn't foresee herself making any other dramatic changes to herself. "However, I have been watching a lot of facelift videos; perhaps in 10 years."