Hooded eyes are eyes where a fold of skin from beneath the brow hangs over the upper eyelid and hides the crease, so the lid looks smaller and heavier and, with age, tired. They can be fixed, and the fix depends on the cause: mild hooding from a low brow responds to a Botox brow lift for a few months; true hooding, which is excess skin, is removed with an upper eyelid lift; and when the brow itself has dropped, a brow lift is the real answer.
What Hooded Eyes Are
Between the lashes and the eyebrow sits the upper eyelid, and across it runs a crease where the lid folds when the eye opens. In a hooded eye the skin above that crease has more length than the space allows, so it drapes down over the crease and sometimes to the lashes, and the strip of lid that would show between lashes and crease is covered. Many people are born with it, from a prominent brow bone, a deep-set eye or a fuller lid; almost everyone acquires some after forty, as the skin stretches and the brow settles. Surgeons call the acquired kind dermatochalasis; either way it is skin, which decides everything that follows. Puffiness below the eye is a different problem with different causes; if that is yours, read our post on under-eye bags.
Hooded Eyes Versus Normal (Non-Hooded) Eyes
Look straight ahead in a mirror with your forehead relaxed. In a non-hooded eye the crease is visible and a few millimeters of lid show between the lashes and the crease. In a hooded eye the crease is hidden behind a fold, the skin from below the brow rests on or near the lash line, and the visible lid is a thin sliver or nothing. Two everyday tells settle it: eyeshadow applied with the eyes closed vanishes into the fold when the eyes open, and by evening the lids feel heavy and the forehead aches from holding the brows up.
Now add the brow test. Place a fingertip on the tail of one eyebrow and lift it gently to where the brow sat in old photographs. If the hood mostly disappears, the brow is the cause or a large part of it; if the fold stays, the excess is in the lid skin itself. That test predicts most of what Dr. Cat will tell you.
Hooded Eyes Versus Droopy Eyelids (Ptosis)
The words get mixed up, and the problems differ. Hooding is skin hanging over a lid that sits at the right height. Ptosis is the lid margin itself sitting too low, covering more of the colored iris or the pupil, because the muscle and tendon that lift the lid have stretched or weakened; the eye looks sleepy even when the skin is tight. Check the edge of the lid against the pupil: normally it rests just below the top of the iris, and if it crosses toward the pupil, ptosis is part of the picture. They need different operations: removing skin from a ptotic lid leaves the margin where it was, and ptosis is corrected by tightening the lifting muscle. The two often coexist and are planned together.
Why It Happens
Genetics sets the starting shape: a heavy brow bone, a deep-set eye, a full lid or a low brow runs in families. Age adds the rest: skin loses collagen and elastin and stretches, the fat pad under the brow settles, and the brow itself descends, pushing skin it once held up into the lid. The forehead compensates by lifting the brows all day, which is why hooded eyes come with horizontal forehead lines and an evening headache. Sun, smoking and thin skin bring all of it forward by a decade.
The ethnicity question deserves a straight answer: no group owns hooded eyes. Hooded shapes appear in every ancestry, and age-related hooding happens to everyone. A low or absent crease, common in many East Asian eyes, is a different anatomy, a crease position rather than a hanging fold, and when it is treated at all it is treated with a crease-forming operation, which our post on double eyelid surgery explains.
Are Hooded Eyes Attractive?
Often, yes. Hooded eyes are an eye shape shared by many admired faces, and most people who have them never treat them. Treatment is a choice for the point at which the hood has become heavy: when it hides the lid entirely, makes the eyes look tired in every photograph, defeats makeup, or narrows the upper field of vision. The aim of surgery is to give the shape you have its lid back, not to change it.
Makeup and Non-Surgical Options
Makeup can disguise hooding: shadow placed above the natural crease, where it still shows with the eyes open, liner tightlined along the upper lashes, and waterproof formulas that survive the fold. Eyelid tape holds the fold up for a day. None of it changes the skin.
Botox for hooded eyes is the "Botox brow lift": small doses relax the muscles that pull the brow down at its tail and between the brows, so the forehead muscle lifts the outer brow a few millimeters and takes a little skin with it. It suits mild hooding where the brow is only slightly low, lasts three to four months, and can make heaviness worse if the forehead is over-treated. It cannot remove skin. At our practice Botox of the forehead and around the eyes is injected by Dr. Cat herself. Upneeq, a prescription eye drop we do not offer, contracts a small muscle in the lid and raises the margin a millimeter or two for several hours; it addresses mild ptosis, not a fold of skin, and wears off every day. Thread lifts at the temple, which we do not offer either, pull the brow tail up a little for a few months; radiofrequency skin tightening and eye creams firm the surface and cannot shorten a fold. When the tissue that hangs is skin, the two options that remove or lift it are surgical.
The Fix: Upper Eyelid Lift (Blepharoplasty)
An upper eyelid lift removes the excess skin, and where needed a sliver of muscle and a small pocket of fat, through an incision placed in the natural crease so the scar sits inside the fold and is not seen with the eye open. Dr. Cat performs it under general anesthesia with a board-certified anesthesiologist and a numbing solution, works under a 3.5X magnification operating lenses for precise, symmetric results, and closes the incision with small sutures using her technique for scars that are undetectable once healed. Her instinct is conservative: enough skin to give the lid back, never so much that the eye looks hollow or surprised. With the lower lids added the operation runs two to four hours; the upper lift alone is shorter. The result is a visible crease, a lid that holds shadow, brows that can rest, and for some patients a wider upper field of vision. There is no age requirement. Read about an upper eyelid lift (blepharoplasty) in Beverly Hills for the surgical detail.
When a Brow Lift Is the Real Answer
If the brow test erased most of your hood, removing lid skin alone will disappoint you, and can do harm: taking skin from a lid beneath a dropped brow pulls the brow further down and leaves the heaviness in place. The sign is a brow at or below the rim of the eye socket, often with deep forehead lines from years of compensating. A brow lift in Beverly Hills repositions the brow through small incisions behind the hairline, or along the hairline when the forehead is high, and at our practice it is performed by our board-certified facial plastic surgeon, often paired with an eyelid lift by Dr. Cat so the brow, the fold and the lid are corrected as one unit. If the heaviness you notice is lower on the face, in the cheeks and jawline, that is a different mechanism, covered on our page about sagging jowls.
What Dr. Cat Looks For at the Consultation
She examines the upper and lower lids and the skin around the eyes, takes a medical history, and looks at three things in particular: where the brow sits, whether the lid margin itself is low, and how much true skin excess there is once the brow is held in place. From that she tells you which of eyelid lift, brow lift, both, or Botox fits your goals, and if an eyelid lift is not the right answer she says so. Trained in both head and neck surgery and plastic surgery, she treats the eyes as part of the face rather than a feature on their own, which is how the "done" look is avoided. The surgical consultation fee is $500, credited toward surgery; the discovery call before it is free.
Before and After
Photos answer what words cannot: how much lid shows afterward, whether the crease looks natural, whether the eyes still look like yours. Our eyelid lift before and after photos show front and three-quarter views; the eyes in the "after" should look rested rather than changed.
Recovery in Brief
The eyelid lift is an outpatient operation: someone drives you home and stays the first night, discomfort is managed with Tylenol, and cold compresses for two days keep swelling down. Bruising and swelling settle over the first week, sutures come out at five to six days, and most patients are back at work within that week, with moderate exercise at two weeks and vigorous exercise at four. No rubbing, and no contact lenses for two weeks. Scar treatment starts at two weeks, the final result appears at three to four months, and the scar fades over about a year.
Cost in One Line
Dr. Cat's surgeon's fee for an upper eyelid lift is $8,000 to $12,500; the operating room and anesthesia are quoted at your consultation. Surgeon's fees are typical ranges: a more complex case can cost more, and your fee is set at your consultation and is final only in your written quote. Our blepharoplasty cost guide explains the quote and when insurance reviews a functional case.
Frequently Asked Questions About Hooded Eyes
What does it mean to have hooded eyes?
A fold of skin from beneath the brow hangs over the upper eyelid and hides the crease, so little or no lid shows between the lashes and the brow when the eye is open. It is an eye shape from birth in many people and an age change in almost everyone, and it is a matter of skin.
Are hooded eyes attractive?
Often, yes. Hooded eyes are an eye shape shared by many admired faces, not a flaw, and most people who have them never treat them. Surgery is worth considering when the hood hides the lid, makes the eyes look tired, defeats makeup or narrows the upper field of vision.
How do you get rid of hooded eyes?
Remove the extra skin or lift what is pushing it down. An upper eyelid lift (blepharoplasty) removes the fold through an incision hidden in the crease; a brow lift is the answer when a dropped brow is the cause; a Botox brow lift helps mild hooding for a few months. Creams and tape do not remove skin.
What ethnicity is most likely to have hooded eyes?
No single one. Hooded shapes occur in every ancestry, and age-related hooding happens to everyone as skin loosens and the brow settles. A low or absent crease common in many East Asian eyes is a different anatomy, a crease position rather than a hanging fold, and is treated differently.
What causes hooded eyes?
Four things, alone or together: an inherited eye shape with a prominent brow bone or fuller lid; age, as skin loses collagen and elastin; a brow that has descended and pushes skin into the lid; and skin thinned by sun and smoking. The cause decides the fix.
Will an eyelid lift affect my vision?
Not negatively. Some patients report that their vision feels more open afterward, because heavy upper-lid skin had been crowding the field of view. Blurring from ointment in the first days is temporary.
Does Botox work for hooded eyes?
For mild hooding caused by a slightly low brow, yes, a little and for a few months: relaxing the muscles that pull the brow down lets the forehead lift the tail of the brow a few millimeters. It cannot remove skin, so a true fold of excess skin needs an eyelid lift.
What is the difference between hooded eyes and droopy eyes?
Hooding is extra skin above a lid that sits in the right place. A droopy eyelid (ptosis) is the lid margin itself sitting low over the pupil because the lifting muscle is weak or stretched. Hooding is treated by removing skin; ptosis needs the lifting muscle tightened.
Talk to Dr. Cat About Your Eyes
If your forehead is tired of holding your brows up, the next step is an examination. Start with a free discovery call, or call (310) 858-8808, and we will tell you whether a consultation with Dr. Cat makes sense. Before you visit, read the eyelid lift in Beverly Hills page and browse the eyelid lift before and after photos.
Medically reviewed by Dr. Cat Begovic, MD, FACS, board-certified plastic surgeon. Last reviewed September 2026.