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DermaColumnThe doctors who write here › Hong Seok-woo
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Hong Seok-woo

Director, Somsei Clinic

Adjunct Professor, Korea University Anam Hospital (current) · Residency, Korea University Anam Hospital · Facial Anatomy Program, Yale University · Anti-Aging Program, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard · Member, Korean Academy of Aesthetic and Laser Surgery

44 columns Acne·Lifting·Pores1 min walk from Dunchon-oryun Stn. Exit 1 (Line 9)

Columns written by Hong Seok-woo

44 columns
Somsei Clinic · 213, Olympic Park Foreon Station 9, 1300 Yangjae-daero, Gangdong-gu, Seoul
Lifting & Firmness

Why radiofrequency alone falls short on a sagging deep cheek

Cheek sagging is hard to read as stretched skin alone. The deep cheek fat moves downward, the ligaments that h…

2026.09.21 · 3 min read
Weight & Metabolism

Why a fat dissolving injection hurts differently from one person to the next

The pain of a fat dissolving injection is not set by the strength of the drug alone. Deoxycholic acid breaks d…

2026.09.21 · 4 min read
Lifting & Firmness

Why the length of a HIFU result is hard to put in one number

Rather than fixing the duration of a HIFU result at one number, it is more accurate to separate out how the li…

2026.09.17 · 7 min read
Acne & Scars

Why acne keeps returning on the nose alone

Acne that keeps appearing on the nose is not a sign that you have managed your skin badly. It comes from the s…

2026.09.08 · 5 min read
Before & After Care

What to check before having a treatment in Korea

The examination comes first and the device is chosen after it. A consultation where what you will have and how…

2026.09.08 · 8 min read
Botox & Fillers

What changes when masseter Botox is repeated

Botox works on a square jaw only when the masseter is the reason it looks square. If the bone angle is wide, o…

2026.09.08 · 8 min read
Wrinkles & Firmness

What causes neck lines and how far treatment can smooth them

Neck lines are not one thing. The lines that fold across and the bands that stand out vertically form in diffe…

2026.09.08 · 9 min read
Acne & Scars

Switching to azelaic acid when other acne treatments sting

Azelaic acid is not the gentlest acne treatment there is, but it is the one you can retreat to when irritation…

2026.09.07 · 8 min read
Before & After Care

Why Korean clinic procedure names do not match the English ones

Most Korean procedure names are product names, while most English ones are names for a method. That is why the…

2026.09.07 · 9 min read
Lifting & Firmness

Why Liftera and Ultherapy give different results even when the total energy is similar

Comparing HIFU by shot count or by total joules often fails to match what actually happens. The same amount of…

2026.09.07 · 5 min read
Botox & Fillers

A lump you can feel after Olidia: is it a nodule?

Feeling something after Olidia does not mean it is a nodule. For the first few days it is normal to feel the i…

2026.08.31 · 5 min read
Lifting & Firmness

Coolsonic and Liftera: what actually differs between two pen-type HIFU devices

Coolsonic and Liftera are not better or worse than one another. They are for different places. Both are pen-ty…

2026.08.31 · 6 min read
Pigmentation

New dark patches after summer: melasma, sun spots, or something else?

The patches that surface in autumn are melasma, sun spots, or post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, and the thr…

2026.08.29 · 8 min read
Lifting & Firmness

Ozempic face: managing a hollowed, sagging face after rapid weight loss

Ozempic face happens because the skin cannot keep up with the speed at which the fat disappears. If you lost w…

2026.08.28 · 10 min read
Before & After Care

The evening after your treatment: how to care for your skin at home

The goal on the evening of your treatment is to add no further irritation. Moisturising and sun protection are…

2026.08.17 · 4 min read
Texture & Hydration

Home beauty devices: what I learned using them myself as a dermatologist

Home-use beauty devices and medical devices are designed for different purposes from the start. They are a sup…

2026.08.16 · 7 min read
Acne & Scars

Why dermatologists keep prescribing azelaic acid for acne

Azelaic acid can help pigmentation. But the reason I reach for it in practice is different: it treats the acne…

2026.08.09 · 4 min read
Acne & Scars

Acne before every period: what actually helps

Skin can be fine most of the month and then break out along the jaw before a period. These are often nodules —…

2026.08.03 · 4 min read
Lifting & Firmness

Ultherapy and InMode, and still no change? What was missing

Some people arrive having had both Ultherapy and InMode elsewhere, saying the jawline never changed as much as…

2026.08.01 · 4 min read
Before & After Care

Why several treatments at once is not a bargain

Skin concerns rarely arrive one at a time. The jawline blurs while the texture is rough, and pores and acne sc…

2026.07.30 · 3 min read
Botox & Fillers

Filler in the neck lines and they are still there. Why?

"I had filler in my neck and the line is still visible." "It stays there even when I hold my head up." Neck li…

2026.07.26 · 3 min read
Acne & Scars

Acne or scars: which is treated first?

"Extraction helps for a few days and then it is back." "Why do the marks and the pitting never go?" Searching …

2026.07.23 · 3 min read
Acne & Scars

Can you use sunscreen with acne-prone skin?

"Will sunscreen block my pores when the acne is already bad?" It comes up every summer. Acne-prone skin still …

2026.07.16 · 3 min read
Before & After Care

No face wash while travelling: is hotel body wash all right?

It comes up more often than you would expect. Washing with hotel body wash once or twice is unlikely to make a…

2026.07.12 · 9 min read
Pigmentation

"No pigment laser in summer" — is that still true?

People postpone pigment treatment to autumn, then winter, then another summer arrives and nothing has changed.…

2026.07.11 · 9 min read
Lifting & Firmness

Coolphase: why the technique matters more than the cooling

The first question about Coolphase is always whether it really is not hot. It is not — noticeably less than ot…

2026.07.06 · 7 min read
Pores & Sebum

Does RF microneedling have to hurt to work? (Seoul)

RF microneedling does not have to hurt to work. How much it hurts is decided by how briefly the energy is deli…

2026.07.03 · 3 min read
Before & After Care

Why a bad night’s sleep makes a treatment hurt more

The same treatment at the same settings produces very different pain on different days. The people who found i…

2026.06.29 · 9 min read
Lifting & Firmness

Layered lifting: why the order of the layers matters

People often come back after lifting elsewhere — the result fell short, or it hurt too much, or they had both …

2026.06.22 · 8 min read
Botox & Fillers

Botox for underarm sweating: why results differ

Excess underarm sweating has a name — hyperhidrosis — and botulinum toxin treats it reasonably simply. What de…

2026.06.21 · 5 min read
Acne & Scars

Forehead comedones in a child: what can actually be prescribed

Acne is thought of as starting after puberty, but forehead comedones from primary school age are not rare. Wha…

2026.06.14 · 5 min read
Botox & Fillers

Does retaining ligament filler lift the face?

You often hear that retaining ligament filler pulls the face up, or strengthens the ligament to produce a lift…

2026.06.14 · 3 min read
Pores & Sebum

RF microneedling tips: what is the difference?

You will have heard that one tip is for pores and another for acne scars. But if you have both, which do you h…

2026.06.08 · 2 min read
Pigmentation

Does treating melasma aggressively make it darker?

"I had a course of treatment and the melasma got darker." Answering that means going back to what melasma is. …

2026.06.06 · 2 min read
Botox & Fillers

Serum, skin booster, filler: same hyaluronic acid, different jobs

A fair question comes up often: what is the difference between a hyaluronic acid serum, a hyaluronic acid skin…

2026.05.31 · 5 min read
Lifting & Firmness

Three conditions for Ultherapy without hollow cheeks

The question people ask most before a lifting treatment is whether Ultherapy will hollow their cheeks. The wor…

2026.05.31 · 4 min read
Lifting & Firmness

Volume has already dropped: which lifting approach works?

A common question is which device is better — InMode, Ultherapy, Thermage. Before the device, the thing to est…

2026.05.26 · 9 min read
Lifting & Firmness

Full cheeks that still look good: what is different about those faces

Online you will see simple formulas: lose the cheek fat and you look better, clear the deep cheek and you get …

2026.05.24 · 5 min read
Pores & Sebum

Bumps left on the nose: pores or scars?

"The acne settled but the nose is still bumpy." "Is it enlarged pores or a scar?" Bumps left on the nose are o…

2026.05.14 · 2 min read
Botox & Fillers

Juvelook and Olidia: what is the difference?

"I looked into collagen stimulators for a hollow anterior cheek — Juvelook, Olidia, Sculptra — and there are t…

2026.05.03 · 2 min read
Laser & Hair Removal

Why you should not pluck before laser hair removal

People sometimes wax the day before a laser hair removal appointment to arrive tidy. That can substantially re…

2026.04.30 · 9 min read
Before & After Care

A week before the wedding: is a treatment still all right?

With one or two weeks to go, the question is what to have. The answer is that this is not the point to try som…

2026.04.26 · 4 min read
Botox & Fillers

Filler in the lateral cheek, and it looks more saggy. Why?

"I had lateral cheek filler for hollowing and now it looks more saggy." The cause is usually not the product. …

2026.04.24 · 4 min read
Acne & Scars

Brown marks and red marks: why the treatment differs

"I have had laser several times and the acne marks are still there." Most often the cause is not the device bu…

2026.04.19 · 10 min read