Cheek liposuction is the most mysterious and strange beauty trend of 2022

We all have cheek fat. It’s a very normal piece of meat found between your cheekbones (called cheekbones) and the contour of your jaw. Its removal takes place through a surgery, the doctor inserts into the patient’s mouth and removes fat from the cheeks from the inside out. It leaves no marks or scars on the face. The treatment is also purely cosmetic – there are no health benefits to getting rid of your cheek fat. The result is hard to miss: a person’s chin and jawline are razor-sharp, their cheekbones so clear it’s as if they’re sucking on a lemon permanently.

Transient beauty trends have taken over in 2022. The formerly popular Brazilian butt lift – a fat transfer procedure that helps patients achieve a fuller, rounder butt contour – has been discontinued. The razor-thin brows of the ’90s are back. “Heroin chic” seems to be on the rise, with signs that it will explode back into the mainstream next year. However, what is worrisome about the propensity for cheek fat (or lack of fat) is the permanence of the procedure. Especially in a beauty industry that thrives on a resurgence of short-term, cyclical fashions. For example, thin eyebrows were removed in 2010 by Cara Delevingne’s bushy eyebrows. Now, in 2022, threaded brows are having a renaissance. There’s a lot to keep up with, but that’s backed up by the fact that eyebrows tend to grow back. Our cheek fat and structure probably won’t. And as plump and youthful, collagen-filled baby faces are sure to be sexy in the usual way by 2032, those with sunken cheeks may be yearning for a sunken face.

At 111 Harley Street, a plastic surgery clinic in London’s popular cosmetic district, cheek fat removal is the third most popular procedure in 2022, after rhinoplasty and liposuction. It’s been described as an ‘in and out’ procedure, taking an alarmingly quick 30 minutes, all the way to around £4,500. Plastic surgeon Yannis Alexandrides, the clinic’s founder, said his doctors performed 99 cheek liposuction surgeries between 2020 and 2022, with 67% of clients being women and 33% is male. He explains that some people who feel they have a “baby face” as adults may be “good candidates for cheek fat removal” and that many clients have been swayed by the trends. beauty in popular culture. “Some people see this trend in the media about their favorite models and celebrities and want to achieve similar contoured looks,” he says. “Contouring below the cheeks with makeup can only do so much.”

However, other plastic surgeons are skeptical of what motivates people to choose to have cheek fat removed. Dr Tunc Tiryaki, a consultant plastic surgeon at the Cadogan Clinic in London, refuses to perform cheek fat removal on his clients because he believes it is the “wrong treatment” to achieve. defined face. He explains: “Removing cheek fat does not create contours but creates space between the cheeks and the jawline. Also, the irony of getting rid of cheek fat is that as we age, we naturally lose fat and collagen from our cheeks. Removing it early only accelerates the inevitable aging process. Dr Tiryaki adds: “In the long run, as we age, we lose the puffiness in our cheeks. “So the patient starts to look really emaciated, almost like a ghost. I do not recommend cheek fat removal for a patient trying to shape their face.”

Dr. Tiryaki knows that social media plays a role in customers seeking plastic surgery. He also suggests that interactive facial filters on apps like Instagram or Snapchat could be to blame for the cheek fat removal boom – and the growing popularity of looking real, really like carving. “All the filters are designed to make your face look more V-shaped and defined,” he says. “When you come back to reality, of course, this doesn’t correspond to our real bodies.”

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However, the quest for slim, sculpted faces has Instagram filters built in. Contouring is a makeup technique that dates back to the 1930s when makeup artists started shading actors’ faces so they wouldn’t appear too flat on film. Contouring involves using makeup that is darker than the subject’s skin tone to cast shadows on different parts of the face. In the 1990s, makeup artist Kevyn Aucoin (who created one of the most famous women’s makeup powders) was responsible for creating edgy looks for many models and celebrities, including including Madonna, Whitney Houston and Cher. In the early 2010s, Kim Kardashian re-popularized it, posting her intense daily shading routine to her millions of followers in a how-to video. Today, think of cheek fat removal as a way of making the temporary illusion of contour really long-lasting.

Victoria Kleinsman, a self-esteem expert and body love coach, regularly witnesses first-hand how temporary beauty trends – often rooted in the cult of slim bodies – affect the world. how people see themselves. She works primarily with people struggling with body image issues and credits the search for authenticity as the root of it. “We believe we get love and acceptance from being thin because that’s what society tells us,” she said. Kleinsman started body image coaching after 20 years of battling an eating disorder. It almost killed her. She explained: “I wanted to lose weight because society told me that was how I would get love and acceptance. As we discuss getting rid of cheek fat and all the trends that have come and gone in 2022, Kleinsman seems exhausted by it. She calls them “toxic” and “harmful”. “When will this stop?” she asked. “If we don’t start honoring a wide range of faces and face shapes early on, the results will be dangerous.”

Kleinsman adds that she would never judge a client wanting surgery, but always want them to understand why they wanted such a change in the first place. “Most people don’t take the time to wonder why they might want surgery,” she says. “My job is to bring them back to self-love and acceptance. I asked them the magic question ‘why’ maybe four times. Because when we understand the roots of reasoning, we can learn a lot about ourselves.”

What I find most odd about watching a viral makeup look effectively turn into a permanent surgical treatment is that beauty standards will only continue to demand more of us. A few weeks ago, I hadn’t even heard of cheek fat – now it’s clearly a problem. What will be the next one? While we wait to find out, young people’s self-esteem will continue to plummet and how to fix it is likely to be more extreme than ever.