{"id":66730,"date":"2026-05-11T20:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T20:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/66730\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T20:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T20:36:09","slug":"he-survived-south-korea-skincare-hell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/66730\/","title":{"rendered":"He Survived South Korea Skincare Hell"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s an open secret that if you\u2019re a man, and you\u2019re losing your hair, you can go to Turkey for cheap plugs. Flights from there, often filled with formerly balding dudes whose skulls are scabbed from their hair restoration treatments, are nicknamed \u201cTurkish Hairlines<\/a>.\u201d But there\u2019s a new hub for Westerners looking to refine their image: Seoul, which is apparently the skincare capital of the world as well as being the capital of South Korea. There, teams of aestheticians deploy lasers, peels, injectables, masks, and endless tinctures, serums, and cleansers, all in the hopes of making their client look a few years younger.<\/p>\n

Ben Kawaller, whose name you might recognize from his Free Press series Ben Meets America<\/a> and the Swing State Debates<\/a>, is always game to go out and try something new\u2014and high-end. Extremely painful dermatological treatment was no exception. \u201cIt was the worst pain I\u2019ve ever had in my life,\u201d Ben told me, on the latest episode of the Second Thought podcast. He was describing his encounter with a dramatic and fishy\u2014yes, it involves salmon sperm\u2014procedure that apparently involved 150 needles, and is illegal in America. \u201cIt felt like my skin was being slowly peeled off,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

So, was it worth it? Ben shrugged: \u201cI never feel worth it.\u201d But I gotta say: He looks great.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s an open secret that if you\u2019re a man, and you\u2019re losing your hair, you can go to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[165],"tags":[614],"class_list":{"0":"post-66730","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sergey-brin","8":"tag-sergey-brin"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116557865455382827","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}