Official Plastic Surgery Thread

[SepiaSkies]

14 hours ago, elseelseelse2 said:

On the subject of age face changes, I found this paper recently (https://www.hindawi.com/journals/tswj/2014/301501/) that discusses how our features change in puberty and your early 20s, it breaks it down from the jaw to the chin to the nose and lips. It's quite wordy but it also explains a lot of statements I see people casually throwing around, for example, "well, I didn't have a nose job but my nose changed from when I was a little kid" - of course it would change, that's why you shouldn't use baby pictures to compare. My nose in kindergarten and my nose at 16 years old were different too. Your nose changes from the ages of 6-14 (and the height may still increase up until you're 18). But using post-puberty pictures when the idols are in high school vs. current day? Yeah, that might not be puberty anymore coincidentally when they joined an entertainment agency too

Forgot to quote this part in my previous post lol, but I just skimmed over it and it was very informative, thank you for bringing it to my attention! I've heard several PS deniers refer to 16-18 year olds as "actual kids" that shouldn't be compared to their adult selves because they will naturally look way different, but the thing is, we're talking about idols in their late teens to mid-twenties most of the time; the most defining changes will already have happened by the time they're like, 17, so you can absolutely use pictures from their high school days as reference. Your high school self will not look vastly different from your early twenties self, bone structure-wise.

[SepiaSkies]

22 hours ago, jaemints said:

Hey, I am just really confused of how perfectly natural these idols look to the point where I am aware its not natural but a part of me still feels like they might be naturally good looking especially when I watch Dreamies, they are good looking no doubt but I wonder do they pick good looking over talent during training or its just that they do a lot of cosmetic surgeries. It really amazes me how they look so natural and perfect that I sometimes get jealous. How can they be so talented and gorgeous at the same time? And how much they are loved by people. How can we be so sure about their surgeries? I just want someone to remove some of my doubts

One thing to keep in mind is that plastic surgery does not inherently make you look "fake", for the lack of a better word. There's very advanced technologies nowadays that strive to achieve natural results, and it's perfectly possible for someone to look as natural as the person next door despite having had multiple procedures. It all comes down to the skill of the surgeon, the technologies used, and the wants and needs of the patient. "Unnatural", obvious looking plastic surgery often happens due to shady practices (low-skill or shadow doctors), opportunistic doctors that capitalize on their patient's insecurities and talk them into getting way more procedures than they initially wanted, and sometimes the patients themselves wanting to get unnecessary work done, enabled by said opportunistic doctors.

Getting plastic surgery does not mean that the person wasn't good looking to begin with; in fact, I find that especially the so-called visuals in groups face immense pressure to maintain their good looks and look perfect all the time. Lots of people argue that when an idol was casted for their looks they couldn't possibly have had surgery, but that is nonsense, in my opinion. It's unlikely (but not impossible) that they will undergo drastic changes, but a few tweaks here and there - a subtle nose job, botox, buccal fat removal, deepening their eyelid creases, fillers, etc. - are incredibly common, at least in my observation. And they usually don't happen only once, many are constantly fixing small things here and there to remain on top of their game.

So yes, many idols are specifically casted for their looks, but that doesn't rule out the possibility of them getting plastic surgery. Of course, the majority of us are just speculating, and it's important to not obsess over these things. But I'd argue that some cases are rather indisputable - a hooked nose with a droopy tip does not turn into a ski slope nose with an upwards pointing tip the minute you turn 20 by sheer willpower.

(Also, don't be jealous, OP. These idols have entire teams behind them making sure no strand of hair is out of place and are rigorously trained. These things are unattainable for us normal people, and it's good to keep in mind that behind all the make-up and surgeries and training they're just people as well.)

Edited January 21, 2022 by SepiaSkies
typos, typos, typos!

[SepiaSkies]

5 hours ago, KentasGlittery EyeMakeup said:

Yeah but it's because you pay attention to PS and know what certain procedures look like. Ask the GP. No one will tell you he's botched. Some people haven't even noticed he had stuff done, as hard as that is to believe for the rest of us who can tell and have working eyes and know what to focus on. Some people on here fixate on things way too much.

This discussion made me realize that I seem to have a different perception of what counts as "botched" than most of the people here. To me, botched means that either the surgery comprosises the functionality of the body part it was performed on (for example a nose job that affects the patient's ability to breathe properly), poses a health risk (breast implants on the verge of bursting), or leaves the patient deformed to the point it causes them emotional distress. Results that simply look "bad" or "unnatural" (which is incredibly subjective anyway) are not necessarily botched in my opinion. Furthermore, what even counts as bad? A lot of people think unnatural or obviously "fake" looking results count as bad, but I don't think that's always true. Everybody's opinion on what looks natural or good differs, and sometimes creating something that looks unreal might even be the goal, if that's what the patient is going for. I don't think we can reach a consensus here, but the word botched to me means something far more severe than results I don't like or I think are obviously surgical looking.

I also agree with the statement I quoted above that the only reason we even think of some idols we're discussing here as botched is because we have an interest in plastic surgery and our eyes are attuned to picking up these kind of things. What we think is obvious because we're active in spaces that discuss plastic surgery will often not even be visible to people who have no interest in this matter. I assure you guys that nobody outside this thread will stumble across someone like Jaehyun and think he looks in any way botched, or even think that he had any kind of work done to begin with. Same with some others that have been discussed here for looking unnatural, the vast majority of people who have no interest in plastic surgery will not be able to even tell that they had anything done in the first place, even though it's obvious to us. It will take some seriously deformed results for most people to say someone looks botched.

I know I love to pick on plastic surgery deniers, but this is honestly also the reason why so many people think their idols are natural - because they have no idea what to look for, even when presented with before and after pictures. Sure, some people are dense on purpose when it comes to these things, but unless the results are overwhelmingly obvious to someone who doesn't spend their free time browsing plastic surgery forums, they will simply not pick up on most of these things. What we're doing here is basically looking at everyone through a magnifying glass 24/7, which is why surgeries are easier for us to spot. For those who don't, very few of the things we discuss here will be obvious.

[SepiaSkies]

26 minutes ago, smolsoo said:

Also, I see it a lot in this thread (and other places too) that people say things like "I wish the company would stop touching xyz idol's face" which is something you can say about idols in their early years, but at some point it's definitely the idols' decision IMO. I mean, i know we like to blame everything on kpop companies, and often times it's correct that companies are the ones "convincing" idols to get xyz done, but sometimes Idols act independently.

I don't know why but whenever people leave comments such as "I hope SM won't touch his jaw!" I can't help but imagine Lee Sooman himself happily snipping away at an idol's face with a scalpel lol. No but seriously, especially in their trainee years, idols are known to be "pushed" in a certain direction looks-wise by remarks of their company and trainers; this however does not mean they are forced at gunpoint and I do believe they have the power to say no, but at some point the remarks are going to get to them and they succumb to the pressure. Plus, when you're told that you'd easily get the center position if you just fixed your nose and you kinda wanted a nose job anyway you'll probably comply. I think the attitude towards plastic surgery in a competitive entertainment company environment is most likely a lot more casual than we imagine.

I also agree that once they leave their rookie years behind a lot of the cosmetic changes we see are probably their own decision, as long as they align with the image the company wants them to portray. Of course, how much any of this is actually their free will is a whole other can of worms lol, but I do believe that the company doesn't have all that much to do with an idol's plastic surgery once they are established.

[SepiaSkies]

17 hours ago, Lyanna15171 said:

Trainees "have the power to say no," but there's a cost to refusing and that's not debuting. Of course it might depend from trainee to trainee, a company might suggest something to one trainee but order another, but trainees really don't have any bargaining power because there will always be other trainees who will agree to anything. Then only thing a trainee can do is quit or move companies if they absolutely refuse to do what the company tells them. Video from a trainee (probably SM) where she says that she was told to get a jaw shave to debut, and wasn't allowed to pick the place or time.

 

 

Once an idol is actually signed and debuted though, it seems unlikely that a company can really do anything to force a surgery. They can certainly pressure, coerce, and gaslight idols into agreeing, but I doubt they would dissolve an idols contract over refusal of surgery.

Oh they would certainly face repercussions in most cases, I didn't mean to imply that they can just say no and the company is just like bummer and debuts them anyway, especially when there's multiple other promising trainees willing to take that step. But I do wonder how much of it is case by case. Would a company risk not debuting an exceptional talent that fits their vision perfectly for refusing to get double eyelids? Maybe, maybe not. We do occasionally hear of idols that were supposed to get stuff done but refused which makes me believe that it probably differs from company to company and trainee to trainee. Plus the manner in which the surgeries were suggested probably also matters. Was it really just a recommendation in the form of a passing remark or an oder? The first one you might easily be able to refuse but when you're scheduled to debut and absolutely refuse to comply with an oder you might get the boot.

Trainees not getting to choose where or when to have surgery isn't all that surprising, given everything I've observed and read and heard in my many years as a fan. Companies most likely have deals with clinics and the closer the trainees get to their envisioned debut date the more likely they are to head in for surgery to allow for enough recovery time in midst of hectic debut preparations. In fact I'd say plastic surgery is probably part of their debut preparations (I have some idols in mind that got a nose job just in time for their debut). I'm positive they'd at least get a consultation though.

I also sometimes wonder how many idols later on regret getting surgeries their companies persuaded them to get. Since the majority of trainees are in their teens, I imagine some of them are probably more self-assured as they get older and regret not embracing their natural features, or not waiting long enough to grow into their features. I have no one specific in mind, I'm just wondering.

[SepiaSkies]

Maybe it's just me, but has anyone else noticed how fandoms as a collective seem to kind of...forget about their idol's plastic surgery as time goes by? What's important here is that I'm not talking about the select few individuals in fandoms who participate in PS discussions but rather fandoms as a whole and how much plastic surgery is "general knowlegde" in fandoms and how this knowlegde seems to change overtime.

What prompted this post was a recent discussion about Xiumin and Kai here in this thread and it got me thinking that man, I rarely ever see Exo being discussed in PS spaces nowadays. A few years ago, this was drastically different. Basically from their debut on until maybe 2015, Exo's plastic surgeries were a constant topic both here and basically on every other social media platform and news site there is. They were known for being "plastic", especially compared to previous SM boy groups, and their pre-debut pics were heavily scrutinized (I remember Baekhyun especially being a victim of this). While it might seem that this conversation was mostly fueled by antis, it did lead to some kind of general acknowledgement of their surgeries among fans; deniers always exist, but generally speaking, several of the members having undergone procedures was at least begrudgingly acknowledged. That was in the past. Iirc, the last minor outrage about a member's plastic surgery was in 2016 when Kai (temporarily?) smoothed out the bump on his nose brigde. Since then, be it here or elsewhere, I rarely ever seeing Exo being brought up in PS discussions, and it seems that whenever the slightest mention of PS is brought up, the majority of fans will have no idea what you're talking about. Maybe they know that PS is common in the entertainment industry, which means they acknowledge it's likely that Exo members have undergone procedures themselves, but nothing more concrete. Quite a contrast to the neverending Baekhyun chin discussions back in the day. If you brought up his chin shave debate to the current fandom they'd probably look at you as if you'd grown two heads.

I noticed something similar happening with NCT over the past, say, 2 years (basically since they started getting bigger and their fanbase exploded). Nowadays, I guess you could say that Yuta's chin situation is general fandom knowledge, given the outrage it caused back then. And somehow still does. Occasionally you'll see someone bringing up Ten's nose job, which is generally agreed upon to suit him well, but that's about it. Other than these two, you're at risk of being hunted down for daring to even suggest that some members had plastic surgery. I've noticed that Doyoung, of all people, especially has shooters all over twitter and reddit that are convinced he's always looked the way he does now, citing his intelligence and personality as a reason why he would never get plastic surgery (lol). Now this may sound like plain old deniers, but what I thought was most surprising is that whenever his potential sugeries are brought up the fandom seems to be legitimately baffled that anyone would even dare suggest that he's had anything done. I remember when Doyoung was first introduced and his pre-debut pictures came out literally nobody could recognize him. The general verdict was that his surgeon gave him a completely new face (I disagree but whatever), and I was always under the impression this was generally acknowledged among the fandom; at least nobody threw a fit when you mentioned his jaw shave back then. This has completely changed recently, with everyone being convinced that he's completely natural and "not the type to get plastic surgery".

Now we have Aespa, and they are too young of a group for anyone to forget about their surgeries. But much like their predecessors, their PS is heavily discussed, probably the most out of all of them. I've personally never seen a dedicated MY who doesn't at least acknowledge that they've had PS, but I can't help but wonder how much this will change in the coming years. As their fandom grows and new people gradually come, will the fandom also be under the impression that they've always looked the way they do now because it's the only way the majority of the fandom has ever seen them look like?

Change of fandom demographics is imo one of the reasons for this, tied with the fact that the newer the group the more likely people are to compare them to their pre-debut pictures once those pop up and notice the differences. Once that has happened and the novelty wears off, I feel like the conversation around plastic surgery gradually dies down until the fandom is mostly made up of people who've never heard of these discussions or people that simply forgot over the years. I feel like especially in Exo's case how much, or rather how little the members have changed their looks over the years might be factor as well. This is just my opinion, but I've always thought that the majority of their work was rather conservative to begin with, and most touch ups over the years remained fairly minor and subtle and thus simply never warranted a discussion in recent years. Like nobody suddenly showed up with an entirely new nose 8 years into their career.

I'm awfully sorry for this wall of text lol, it's just that this has been on my mind for quite some time now. I'm probably overthinking this whole thing, but this is a pattern I've noticed over the years with pretty much every group I stan and I wonder if anyone else has noticed this as well. Also sorry for only mentioning SM artists yet again, it's just that these are the groups I follow the most closely nowadays lol.

[SepiaSkies]

12 hours ago, elseelseelse2 said:

Also, the personality thing you brought up...I have seen that happen on this thread, for example with Seventeen (who I like quite a bit and have no ill will towards), where users would cite that it "doesn't make sense with their personalities" to get plastic surgery. Wonwoo for instance literally has a different nose that you can evidently see from his predebuts (it used to have a bump) but people for years said he was natural because when he's "not like that" (not like what? A narcissist?).

This just tells me that a lot of kpop fans still view getting plastic surgery as a sign of someone being vapid and vain. It's part of the reason why they don't want to believe their faves had anything done, because to them it implies not being resilient in the face of pressure to conform to beauty standards, something their self-aware and intelligent idols would never succumb to. In reality lookism affects us all, even the most self-assured and intelligent people, and it's probably amplified tenfold in the entertainment industry. It's why statements like "XYZ would never do this!" regarding plastic surgery rub me the wrong way. It almost reads to me like they view it as a sign of weakness of someone's character.

 

11 hours ago, Lyanna15171 said:

Yeah I remember when NCT first debuted everyone was saying how uncanny valley they look, kind of like aespa now, but now mentioning anything other than Yuta had a chin implant predebut and got it removed will have people wildin. I suppose that people look creey and uncanny when you've never seen them before, but when you get used to them it ceases to be so shocking.

Good to know that I didn't just dream this. I distinctly remember people talking about SM's plastic surgery going downhill when the NCT members were first introduced, and how worrisome it was that a lot of them seemed to have work done while still in high school. Funnily enough, I also remember them being compared to Exo, who were "natural" beauties with just a few tweaks here and there, while NCT members were entering uncanny valley territory. It's just funny to me how the narrative changes as the years go by and newer groups debut and how predictable all of this is.

Of course it's unreasonable to expect fandoms to know the ins and outs of someone's plastic surgery, but I do think it's mildly concerning how people become so used to surgically enhanced faces that it becomes their new normal. The possibility of them having ever looked different becomes unthinkable.

[SepiaSkies]

On 4/24/2022 at 11:52 AM, happysoxdonkey said:

Speaking of early NCT, I was watching this video yesterday and was surprised how different Doyoung and Yuta looked to me.  I wonder if it was after an early and too extreme jaw shave for Doyoung?  I’ve seen it discussed here.  What really surprised me was Yuta’s chin.  I remember at one stage there was a lot of discussion about him getting something done to his chin, but I think this was earlier than that?  Did he get too much filler or a bad implant very early after NCT debuted?

One thing about Doyoung that I can't help but notice whenever I look at old footage is that his face used to, idk, crinkle a lot more? For the lack of a better word lol. Like what changed over the years is that his face got both a bit wider and more proportional looking after a quite severe jaw shave, but it also looks a lot smoother and more supple. I do think he gets his fair share of fillers, but I wonder if he's also had some skin tightening treatments. After all, thread lifting seems to be quite popular among idols and is probably part of the reason so many of them have such firm looking skin.

As some others here have pointed out, changes besides his obvious surgical ones are quite hard to pinpoint. You can see that something is kinda different, but can't figure out what exactly. I must say, his touch-ups in recent years seem to have been quite effective.

[SepiaSkies]

21 hours ago, exodus05 said:

his eyes changed. can someone analyze him . He looks so good now but in 2018 I am not thr biggest fan of his eyes

Doyoung has been talked about at length before, and a few months ago I tried my hand at some sort of masterpost here , if you're interested!

[SepiaSkies]

Dropping by to post this excellent video on the sad history of nose jobs:

It's well researched and structured, and easily understandable imo. It highlights how historically rhinoplasties have been performed mainly to avoid racial and religious discrimination in your daily and professional life, and at worst, to avoid death (mostly when it comes to stereotypically jewish noses). I especially like the topics she touches on during her ending remarks (around 42:00). Certainly a bit long, but it covers a lot of things and is very informative.

[SepiaSkies]

On 9/25/2022 at 6:20 PM, plastichearts said:

has his chin always looked like that https://twitter.com/xoxoxodoie/status/1573673888994598917?s=20&t=j95pjmBsqehPf5oHIJGRdg

 

Yes and no. I'm fairly sure he's been getting chin fillers on and off throughout his entire career, because his chin seems to constantly fluctuate between blunt and square and dainty and pointy. He's definitely got some touch-ups done for their comeback, and the pointy chin especially stood out to me. It's not yet overdone imo, but I hope it wears off quickly.

His blunt chin for comparison:

Spoiler

 

 

[SepiaSkies]

7 hours ago, PlainPlainPlain said:

Does anyone know if/ what IU got done? I was talking to my friend (she’s Korean) and she laughed at me when I said IU hasn’t had anything done. We both like looking at this thread (heyho love) and I’ve not found anything on IU, someone here ages ago said jaw shave and my friend said nose, eyes and lipo to arms but honestly, where? I don’t think there are proofs, IU is my favourite. PS isn’t a bad thing but when someone is naturally stunning shouldn’t it be viewed as such? 
 

See pic (hopefully I attached correctly) she moving her jaw in a way I didn’t think you could if you got surgery? Also lipo to the upper arms would make the skin so so so saggy if she got it done at 28-29 y/o. Lipo makes any skin saggy from what I’ve seen in real life.https://tenor.com/view/iu-cute-beauty-cindy-the-producers-gif-22789399

I’m not a fruit loop I swear but sometimes I think they’re naturally good looking people who just win the genetic lottery, no?

I don't follow IU super closely or anything so I don't know in full detail what she may have gotten done, but about a year ago I posted a naver blog entry here that discussed cheekbone reductions in female celebrities, and IU was one of them. Link to the post, full blog post is linked at the bottom.

Other than that I've seen people discuss her possibly getting her jaw shaved and her nose refined (most likely an implant to increase the height). That's all I can think of for now.

[SepiaSkies]

Doing my part to revive this thread, since I used to be quite active for a bit but then keeping up with most groups became too tiresome:

Does anyone else think that the Exo members' faces stayed surprisingly constistent over the years and their procedures quite subtle compared to other SM senior artists? In honor of their recent comeback I fell down the rabbit hole again and rewatched a bunch of their old MVs for the first time in a while and it seems the most defining changes happened either predebut or during their first two years. Like I realized that Chen actually debuted with his original square jaw and only seemed to have his eyes done at debut (shame about the jaw, double eyelids alone already made him look enough like an idol) and Suho's nose job around Overdose was surprisingly obvious. Like I knew that happened but in direct comparison it kinda caught me off guard.

Not that they didn't get anything else done over the course of their careers (some members *cough*Suho*cough* do tend to look a bit waxy at times), but compared to like, Taeyeon who was just mentioned I think they still look rather fresh and had genuinely good work done. This is not a dig at Taeyeon btw, she's my ultimate bias but by getting rid of most of her bone structure she manages to look somehow 16 and 40 at the same time imo. I just hope the need to look perfect doesn't get to the Exo members as they age and they keep their touch ups subtle.

Might do a follow up post about the members if I feel like it, we haven't had one in many years.

[SepiaSkies]

11 hours ago, Idontreallyknow said:

I would love a follow up, they are my favorite group and I’ve tried to look up people commenting about their procedures but there’s not much( most of the analysis are kinda old too) I’m rather curious because as you said they didn’t really changed that much or at least doesn’t feel like at first glance 

 

2 hours ago, igotaboyonmychin said:

I saw a TikTok yesterday that compared EXO's photos from 2013 and 2023, and the changes are really subtle. Mostly small eye tweaks, like epicanthoplasty, and fillers. Probably some nose refinements as well but it was hard to tell from the angle and the quality of the pictures. I'd say they got most of their work done pre-debut and judging by Baekhyun's or Chinese line's pre-debut pictures there was a LOT of it

Someone here has to have a full list already or the free time to analyze all of the members 

No worries I'm definitely gonna give it a try, I even unearthed my old hard drive with thousands of Exo pics for this. Might still take a while because I'm extremely busy this week, so I'm thinking of posting an anlasysis whenever I have time and then follow it up with one big master post where I link to the individual analyses. Let's see!

[SepiaSkies]

Hello and Welcome to the first installment of my EXO analysis masterpost!!

 

Predebut EXO with their current lineup, poor Xiumin wasn't invited it seems. But worry not, he will be part of this series.

 

Now before we begin, here are a few disclaimers to start with: I am not going to analyze the ex-members(Kris, Tao, Luhan), simply because their departure from the group was almost ten years ago by now and I have no idea what they've been up to since (except Kris being in jail hopefully) or where to even start looking for updates on them. If anyone here happens to still follow them, they are welcome to make their own analyses and I will add them to the masterpost. I will try my best to include Lay though.

Secondly, I will not go through era by era for every single member, for multiple reasons. Those being a) even with three/four members leaving or being inactive, they're still a big group, b) they've been around for a hot minute and sifting through old tumblr archives for pictures that are HD, unedited, have them wearing as little makeup as possible and have the right angle gave me a major headache, and c) they've really not changed all that much throughout the years.

Lastly, please know that I know nothing. I only have a working set of eyes and google on my side. Corrections, comments and suggestions are more than welcome.

 

Let's get started!

The first member in this series is going to be no other than Baekhyun, whose analysis is probably one of the most anticipated! Now Baekhyun was an interesting and ngl one of the hardest cases for me to make sense of, for several reasons. Consequently, chances I'm wrong about pretty much everything are pretty high. Please take everything I say with a grain of salt.

While at first glance it may seem like his surgeon crafted him a whole new face, the more I looked into it the more I came to the conlusion that he really didn't have all that much more done than the rest of the members at all. Rather, I think it was a few but very specific and effective changes that made all the difference in the end, because something clearly happened between these two photos, and it wasn't just a decent haircut and professional styling:

We're going to look at three things that I think have changed, namely his eyes, nose and lower face, meaning the jaw/chin area. I apologize in advance for the terrible quality and angles of some of the predebut pics, I tried my best but he really didn't give me much to work with. I'm gonna start with the eyes, since those two pics already provide a pretty good look at what possibly changed (sorry for the inconsistent sizing lol also please note he is wearing light makeup in the second and third photos):

The shape of his eyes stayed surprisingly similar. Droopy eyelids with a hidden crease and downturned corners. My guess is that he had an upper blepharoplasty predebut to get rid of excess fat and tissue on his upper eyelid. This small but decisive change did some heavy lifting and opened up his eyes quite a bit without altering the shape. At the same time it exposed his eyelid crease and irises a bit more, as is typical of blepharoplasties. His inner corners look the same to me, but he may have had his outer corners cut a little bit. Not sure about this one at all though, since it could just be side effect of the upper bleph.

Now to get an idea of the changes to his nose:

As we can see, from the front his nose bridge looks a bit bumpy with a bulbous tip. A quick glance it his side profile also shows that his nose used to be shorter than it was at debut/now:

Compared to 2012, where not only his nose bridge is smoothed out but his nose is also visibly longer:

I had to look up which procedure can elongate the nose, and it seems that the answer is by reshaping the nose tip through cartilage grafting. I do not think he has an implant; it has been established before that he uses fillers to smooth out his bridge and it does seem to fluctuate every once in a while between slightly bumpy, straight and even hooked at times. He probably gets fillers in the upper part of his bridge up until the eyebrows and above the tip:

Admittedly not the best pic, but the bridge is slightly more bumpy here. Versus more hooked in 2016:

I also think he may have had an alarplasty in addition to the reshaping of the tip.

Saving the best for last, let's look at the work the transformed his lower face. This is the one part about his face that has been debated the most throughout the years, with speculations ranging from jaw shave to chin shave to chin wing implants. After looking at a million pics I reckon he probably got the Jessica Special, meaning corrective jaw surgery with some cosmetic bonuses, since we're already at it. Using this pic again, we can see that his chin juts out awkwardly, creating an imbalanced lower face, with clear indents around his chin. This leads me to believe he first and foremost had corrective jaw surgery to fix his underbite, similar to Jessica, and then some more work to shorten and soften his chin a little bit and create an oval face shape:

compared to his profile at debut:

Now what's interesting is that the closer we get to his predebut times at SM, the more his jaw looks like his post debut one. It could theoretically be possible that he already had corrective jaw surgery in high school as it would be beneficial for him, with SM only adding the finishing touches to complete his flowerboyification. Look at his jaw during his high school graduation ceremony, it does not look all that different from how it looks now:

I still believe he either had a chin reduction or a chin wing implant later on to further integrate his chin and create more of a v-line. There's this indent between his lower lip and chin that doesn't seem to exist anymore.

Comparing predebut Baekhyun to a more recent picture:

To sum it all up, here's what I think he's got done:

1. Upper Blepharoplasty
2. Possible Epicanthoplasty
3. Tip plasty by using cartilage grafting
4. Possible Alarplasty
5. Fillers to smooth out nose bump
6. Corrective Jaw Surgery to fix bite issues
7. Chin Reduction or Chin Wing Implant to give the illusion of a reduction
8. Generally fillers like how all idols get them

What do you think? I think it's a shame how much flack Baekhyun gets for looking "ugly" predebut, so I tried my best not to use the worst pictures ever for this comparison. He undoubtedly had work done to get to his current looks, but I am firmly against purposefully using the most unflattering pics one can find and comparing them with pics where he is clearly all dolled up. For the after-photos I tried using pics where he's wearing very little to no makeup and that weren't edited to hell and back, to make it as fair as possible. As I said in the introduction, I am by no means an expert on this and at the end of the day only he knows the amount of plastic surgery he's had. I limited myself to only pointing out the changes I can personally see, but if there's anything else that caught your eye please do comment and I might add it to the post.

Also please let me know if I should put the pics under spoilers, I tried to limit my selection as much as possible and tried my best at resizing them without compromising too much of the quality, but if it's still too much I'll change it.

Next member will follow soon!
 

 

 

 

Edited July 23 by SepiaSkies

[SepiaSkies]

I'm back with the second part of my EXO series!

This time we're going to look at Chen! I actually meant to post his analysis yesterday as well thinking it was going to be quick and easy, but when I was deciding on which pictures to choose I realized his case wasn't quite as clear cut as I initially thought. After browsing some more old blogs and looking at him in motion I think I can finally pinpoint what's changed for sure. All disclaimers from yesterday apply here as well.

Let's start with a general comparison:

(Apologies for the bad quality of the predebut pic, all the better quality ones had him wearing glasses so you could barely see his eyes which is why I had to settle for this one.)

Anyway, at first glance it kinda seems like nothing much has changed at all. While predebut Chen had a noticeably square jaw, which resulted in his face sometimes looking rather bottom heavy and a little bit imbalanced, his post debut jaw doesn't look all that much different from the front. His profile however is a different story:

With SM's love for v-lines and soft, steep jaws, there was no way they'd let a strong jaw like Chen's pass. And fair enough, at debut his mandible angle had been visibly shaved down, indicating a jaw reduction.

What really tripped me up however was when this was supposed to have happened. Watching their old MVs, I initially thought he had debuted with his original jaw and either went in for a jaw shave during their hiatus between their debut and their first album, or had his jaw shaved down sometime between their MV filming and debut, which would have left him with very little recovery time:

This gif from the History MV shows him with his distinctly square jaw. Same with some of their earliest promo:

Once he'd debuted however his lower face started to look significantly slimmer and more v-shaped, and from looking at pics as early as his Gayo Daejun performance in 2011 it was clear that his jaw shave must have already happened by then, given his mandible angle was nowhere to be found.

This leads me to believe that he did not only have a large mandibular bone, but large masseter muscles as well. In addition to a jaw shave he must've also gotten botox to the masseter muscles for the desired v-line effect that a jaw reduction alone couldn't achieve. I personally believe he still gets botox shots every once in a while. His jaw isn't nearly as inconsistent as, say, Jaehyun's, but it does occasionally seem to fluctuate a bit.

The other thing that stuck out to me are his eyes. Sadly none of the predebut photos I've found are high quality enough to allow for a detailed analysis, but I'll try my best:

These two photos admittedly don't give me much to work with, but judging by the second pic I believe Chen already had double eyelids to begin with, they were just rather uneven and a bit hidden. For his debut I believe he's had his double eyelids deepened and the crease heightened, as well as an epicanthoplasty to get rid of the epicanthic fold:

I cannot tell whether he had an upper blepharoplasty as well, it's possible but for now I'm sticking with double eyelids+epicanthoplasty only.

I do not think he touched his nose either; the picture with the glasses is pretty much the only one we have of his profile and his nose bridge looks about the same height as now to me. It does look a little bit more defined in his after pictures, but it's nothing good lighting can't do so I don't want to jump to conclusions without sufficient material to judge from.

To sum it all up, here's what I believe Chen had done over the years:

1. Jaw Reduction
2. Masseter Botox
3. Double Eyelid Surgery
4. Epicanthoplasty

Interestingly enough he's never struck me as the type to go ham on fillers. He probably does get them every once in a while, but overall his face moves very naturally and he never looks visibly filled in. My personal opinion is that while his jaw shave is definitely one of the better ones we've seen and only truly noticeable in profile when you know what to look for, it was also wholly unnecessary. I feel botox alone would've done a lot already to slim down his lower face and balance his features, but at the end of the day it's his face and I can't say he looks bad now. His eyes on the other hand are a stand out to me, I think getting rid of his epicanthic fold was an interesting choice that paid off.

That's it for Chen! As always, comments and corrections are more than welcome!

 

[SepiaSkies]

Time for part 3, this time featuring Suho!

As far as surgical changes go Suho was a pretty easy member to analyze. However there is one thing I need to clarify before I start: Unlike Baekhyun and Chen who trained for less than a year, Suho trained for a whopping six years, meaning there is a chance that some of the predebut pics I've used won't necessarily be pre-surgery as well. Just a thing to keep in mind.

Suho with his classically handsome face is someone who obviously won the genetic lottery, hence very little work was needed to make him look idol-worthy. When it comes to surgeries I think he kept it simple and went for a conservative eyes and nose combo.

Looking at his eyes, I think it's safe to say that he's had both his eyelid crease deepened as well as an epicanthoplasty. The first two pictures are both predebut, but we can see a clear change in the shape of his inner eye corners as well as a deeper and more defined crease. However I will have to say that the crease part could be due to the poor quality of the first pic; in all of his predebut pictures he's had obvious double eyelids, so it's possible that the only double eyelid surgery he's had was in preparation for his debut. The last photo is the most recent, and his eyelids are no longer uneven.

The second obvious change is his nose. While it was rather shapely to begin with, it has since been narrowed down considerably. Sadly I haven't been able to find a predebut picture of his profile to check whether the height of his nose bridge changed as well, but regardless of that I think we can safely assume he's had an implant inserted to give his bridge more height and definition. While these angles are obviously not quite the same, his nostrils are also slightly more on display than before. Consequently he's probably had a tip plasty as well.

I'll have to retract my statement from earlier though that he's had an obvious nose job around Overdose. I was so sure of that for many years but once I actually put pictures from 2012-2014 together I came to the realization that nothing much changed at all? Maybe it was the drastic weight loss and blond hair that threw me off.

The lighting obviously isn't the same but as far as the shape goes I'm pretty sure it's the same.

While it's overall a well done nose job, the tip at times looks slightly pinched depending on the angle:

This is purely my opinion, but I have an inkling that this type of nose job won't age too well as the skin around the implant becomes thinner with age.

That's it for surgical changes, however a common "complaint" about Suho's look is that he often looks waxy, puffy and pillowy.

While he has naturally full cheeks to begin with it is not farfetched to assume he regularly get's fillers as well, especially around the cheek area.

Here's all the procedures summed up:

1. Double Eyelid Surgery
2. Epicanthoplasty
3. Rhinoplasty featuring a silicone implant
4. Possible Tip Plasty
5. Fillers, especially to the cheeks

Please let me know what you think, especially regarding his nose. I felt like I was going insane because I swear there are some more changes than the initial first nose job but whenever I try to directly compare pictures of similar angles everything suddenly looks the same to me.

Edited July 27 by SepiaSkies

[SepiaSkies]

Taking a short break from my current analysis series to post this gem of a video for everyone who is into the history of plastic surgery:

Turns out fillers, nose jobs and jowl fat removal were already a thing over a hundred years ago, and not just for reconstructive but actual cosmetic purposes as well. Closed nose jobs and jowl fat removal through incisions on the inside of the mouth to reduce visible scarring are essentially still performed the same way today. And using wax as injectives kinda blew my mind.

[SepiaSkies]

Funny how we're once again talking about the lack of subtle plastic surgery in new SM groups considering the next member I'm analyzing is Chanyeol, master of subtle and natural looking procedures!

Chanyeol has always been famed for his visuals, so much like Suho his face only needed very subtle tweaks here and there before he was ready to debut. Speaking of debut, Chanyeol already appeared in various media during his time as a trainee, meaning that for him as well predebut does not necessarily mean pre surgery.

While Chanyeol never had particularly small eyes to begin with, his post-debut eyes are, well, huge. The above picture is too low quality to tell, but he did in fact already have double eyelids predebut, which have been deepened and heightened for his debut. On top of that I believe he's had two epicanthoplasties to his inner and outer corners, respectively. Another possibility that I'm not quite sure about is a lower blepharoplasty. I feel like the white of his eyes is much more exposed in the lower part, but that could also be due to cutting his outer corners. Interestingly enough his eyes are still slightly uneven (I believe the second pic is mirrored, sorry), which makes his procedures look a bit more natural.

Finding good quality pictures of his before nose in profile was near impossible so I hope this will do. I believe Chanyeol had a sublte tip plasty; if you look closely his nose tip used to point downwards, whereas in the after picture it is ever so slightly upturned. Leaving the bump as is and not shaving it down or, god forbid, add an implant was a genius move in my opinion. It looks much more natural this way. Truly a blink-and-you'll-miss-it type of nose job.

That's it for surgical changes I could pinpoint, however there is one more thing I am not sure about. I personally believe Chanyeol has veneers, but I have no way to verify this since it was impossible to find predebut pictures where he is smiling with his teeth showing. At least his incisors look kinda different from the rest of his teeth for me but I have no idea:

What do you guys think? And if you have better pictures of his smile please do post them, I just kinda winged this because I don't have time to go looking for pictures of his smile right now lol.

Here are my findings summed up:

1. Double Eyelids deepened
2. Epicanthoplasty, inner and outer
3. Possible Lower Blepharoplasty
4. Tip Plasty
5. Possible Veneers
6. Possible fillers

And that's it for Chanyeol! I like that he didn't go overboard (although his eyes do look huge sometimes) and opted for an overall rather natural look and subtle enhancements.

Next member will be Kai, possibly even today!

 

[SepiaSkies]

1 hour ago, AstroBaby said:

https://www.pannchoa.com/2023/08/enter-talk-they-botched-yoon-sangs-sons.html

knetz response to Anton's nose.

I think they've become focused on their idols having the trademark 'sm look' (aka resembling previous idols) instead of leaning into their natural features

It's probably both that and the fact that they seem to be desperately chasing plastic surgery trends. While cosmetic procedures are pretty much always a reflection of current trends I feel like in pre-Aespa generations there was at least an attempt to have each member look distinct and work with their individual features (at debut at least, what happens later on their careers is a different story). Either way I can't get over how different rookies look nowadays compared to ~10 years ago.

[SepiaSkies]

Anyway, here's Kai!

Kai is yet another case who seems to have opted for the classic eyes and nose combo. With him as well predebut doesn't equate pre-surgery, as there are multiple predebut pictures of him during his trainee days where he already had work done. Let's get into it!

The first thing that stood out it my were his eyes. Granted, he was probably only in middle school in the first photo but nevertheless we can tell that he used to have a lot of fat/extra tissue around his eyes. While some of that may have disappeared with age, I believe he's had both an upper and lower blepharoplasty to help with that. In addition to that he seems to have touched up his double eyelids as well to make them more defined and even. Finally his epicanthic fold seems far less prominent, indicating an epicanthoplasty.

Kai had some work done on his nose as well. I admittedly cropped the second picture weirdly but you should still be able to tell that both his nose bridge and tip look more defined and narrower. I believe he's had both a rhinoplasty and a tip plasty to to make his nose more shapely. He most definitely does not have an implant:

Kai's nose bridge is naturally rather bumpy, which is why we can pretty much rule out an implant. Instead he seems to occasionally opt for fillers to make it smoother. While this caused a near calamity in 2016, the last pic from 2019 shows his nose looking slightly bumpier again, indicating that the change was only due to temporary fillers which he seems to make use of every once in a while.

Here's the summary of his procedures:

1. Upper and Lower Blepharoplasty
2. Double Eyelid Surgery
3. Epicanthoplasty
4. Rhinoplasty
5. Tip Plasty
6. Fillers for his nose brigde

Please let me know if I missed anything!