Liam Payne debuted a starkly slimmed-down face on the red carpet Thursday, which didn’t go unnoticed by fans or cosmetic surgery experts.
“He didn’t look bad before, but his face, instead of looking soft and a little bit chubby, it looks model-ish and rugged,” celebrity plastic surgeon Dr. Ramtin Kassir, who has worked on the likes of Melissa Gorga and Lele Pons, tells us exclusively.
Florida-based plastic surgeon Dr. Thomas Su adds, “He definitely has a more masculine look with sharper chiseled facial features compared to how he looked previously.”
Pamela Weinberger, founding injector at Plump Cosmetics, agrees, “His new look is definitely sharper than it was in the past and has a bit of a ‘wow factor’ for sure with how different his facial structure is looking. The experts we spoke to, who have decades of experience combined but have not worked on Payne, agree it appears the former One Direction member may have turned to fillers or the celebrity-favorite buccal fat removal procedure to achieve his sharp features.
Weinberger says the “What Makes You Beautiful” singer, 29, may have opted for jawline filler, lip filler, chin filler, and regular maintenance Botox.
Kassir notes that the fillers could have been used to contour the singer’s jaw and chin. However, Dr. Azza Halim, a board-certified aesthetician and functional medicine specialist, says she doesn’t think that fillers alone could help Payne achieve such a defined look in the lower part of his face, so she agrees that buccal fat removal likely played a role.
Meanwhile, Su points out that perhaps Payne underwent either chin and jawline liposuction, which could also help achieve a sharper jaw line.
All of the experts we spoke to, though, believe buccal fat removal is the most likely procedure that was used, which we’re told can cost anywhere from $5,000 to $20,000 depending on the individual who is performing the cosmetic method. However, Kassir warns against those seeking to jump on this new cosmetics “craze” because not all people are the right candidates.
“You can cause premature aging by just randomly taking out people’s buccal fat,” the New York and New Jersey-based doctor points out.
Kassir says the best candidates for buccal fat pad removal are those who are generally fit, have a good diet, exercise plan and weight control, but their face is round, so “no matter what they do, their face is full.”
“If you do it on somebody who’s skinny, as soon as they hit their 30s and maybe even early 40s, their face will look hollow and gaunt and aged,” he says. Kassir and Halim note that buccal fat removal is not reversible, and while Su and Weinberger agree — for the most part — they say there are alternatives that could be attempted to return the facial structure back to it’s natural look, but it’s not a guarantee.
A buccal fat pad removal could potentially be reversed with fat transfer,” Su, who specializes in liposuction and body contouring, says.
Weinberger, a national trainer for Allergan Medical Institute, adds, “You could attempt to replace back the fat with a collagen induction agent like Sculptra or a hyaluronic acid filler — some fullness in the face is really lovely because it keeps us all youthful. Kassir concludes that although Payne’s altered face has opened the floor for speculation, his results could have been achieved by natural causes — or the popular diabetes drug Ozempic, which is commonly used for weight loss by Hollywood’s elite.
“He looks like he’s lost weight, so that [chiseled look] can happen if they lose a decent amount of weight or if they use insulin or diabetic medicines like Ozempic,” the plastic surgeon says.
“It leans out your face a lot more than the rest of your body once you lose weight, so he could have theoretically done that, but even if he went to the gym and lost 20 pounds, his face could get tremendously better and more chiseled.
