After rapid weight loss caused her 'Ozempic face,' a beauty influencer underwent a $9000 surgery similar to a Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL) to transfer fat into her deflated face.
Kaya Odom, from Columbus, Ohio, who once weighed 155 pounds, lost 30 pounds in just over 30 days. Unfortunately, the rapid weight loss gave her face a hollowed-out appearance often seen in Ozempic users.
While BBLs—as the name suggests—are usually reserved for the behind, the 22-year-old revealed she “got a face BBL.”
“Omg you look amazinggg, everything looks so natural!” one of the commenters wrote once Odom showed the results on TikTok.
When another follower asked how she could afford the procedure, Odom revealed her boyfriend splurged thousands for the surgery. She also mentioned that the scar took about six months to heal and is now “nonexistent.”
Influencer spent $9,000 to fix what she called her "Ozempic face," by injecting the fat she'd lost back into her face
Image credits: kyaodom_
Since Hollywood popularized the beauty fad, "Ozempic face" has been spotted on several celebrities and influencers, including Elon Musk, Khloe Kardashian, Oprah Winfrey, Sharon Osbourne, and others.
The medication gained popularity through its active ingredient, Semaglutide, which works by first lowering blood sugar levels and then combining a slowing down of digestion with a reduction in appetite to achieve weight loss.
The drug comes with a host of side effects, such as nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. However, the most notable is what celebrity dermatologist Dr. Paul Jerrod Frank has dubbed "Ozempic face," which causes the face to sag, appear sunken, or show premature signs of aging.
Image credits: kyaodom_
Dr. Sue Decotiis, a weight loss expert from New York, noted that "Ozempic face" can be spotted more dramatically on those with longer faces because of the way the skin is stretched. For instance, Katy Perry, Lizzo, and Robbie Williams.
The facial fat transfer—or fat grafting—procedure, through various techniques, can fix this problem by filling in cheek contours and adding volume to the chin and under the eyes, similar to Kya Odom’s "face BBL."
Suffering from the 'Ozempic face’ side effect, people have started to look for minimally invasive treatments
Image credits: Anna Shvets/Pexels (Not the actual photo)
The cosmetic procedure became so popular that researchers from RealSelf, a virtual healthcare marketplace, noted there was a 253% surge in interest for facial fat transfers from January 2023 through October 2024.
According to Mino Clark, the CEO of the Plastic Surgery Hub, more people nowadays have ‘filler fear’ and are therefore seeking subtle results that won’t give them a ‘pillow face.’
Fifth Avenue plastic surgeon Dilip Madnani agreed, noting that his office receives between 5 to 10 calls per week for the augmentation procedures.
"Rapid weight loss results in volume loss in the face,” the facial plastic surgeon explained.
Image credits: kyaodom_
"This can lead to hollow cheeks and temples, deeper-set eyes, nasolabial and marionette folds, and sagging skin which can make the face appear older and tired,” he added.
Madnani noted that the procedure involves harvesting donor fat from the abdomen or flanks and inserting between five to 20 cubic centimeters, or CCs, of it into the face, depending on the level of volume loss and the patient’s desired look.
In New York, these treatments can cost between $5,000 to $7,000.
Image credits: madnanifacialplastics
“I can look in the mirror now. I can leave the house quicker as it takes much less for me to be presentable,” 69-year-old New Yorker Sarah, who recently went from 215 to 125 pounds with bariatric surgery, shared with The Post.
"I attended my high school reunion and had no anxiety about appearance. My new problem was graciously accepting compliments,” the woman added.
With fat grafting rapidly becoming popular, plastic surgeons have been focusing on improvements and refinements surrounding the process
Image credits: madnanifacialplastics
As the trend grows in popularity, surgeons seeking to rise above the competition have been working on refining the injection process, and improving the texture and quality of the fat injected to achieve better results.
"The most recent advances include separating the fat into even smaller particles, which are softer and more granular, which leads to a smoother and more natural appearance,” California plastic surgeon Dr. Josef Hadeed explained.
Image credits: kyaodom_
For Hadeed, the distinguishing factor moving forward is going to be the way the surgeon prepares and molds the extracted fat, with modern techniques achieving results that continue to benefit the patient even after the treatment is done.
One such advancement is nano-fat grafting, which "involves the emulsification of fat into a solution of stem cells and growth factors," and is said to improve skin quality without increasing volume.
Despite the future of fat grafting in facial augmentation looking bright, the injections have been known to cause severe allergic reactions
Image credits: kyaodom_
Bryan Johnson, a 47-year-old anti-aging influencer, revealed the "horrifying" consequences of injecting someone else's fat into his face in a video uploaded on October 10, 2014.
Determined to look as young as possible, for as long as possible, Johnson underwent heavy physical training, achieving a chiseled look that left him with low levels of body fat.
This, however, led him to rediscover the importance of facial fat, as his face had become gaunt without it.
Image credits: bryanjohnson_
"Facial fat, we discovered, is pretty important for how people perceive youth. It didn’t matter how good my biomarkers were if I didn’t have face fat," he said.
The influencer resorted to donor matter instead, with his face "blowing up" soon after due to a severe allergic reaction that rendered him unable to see and forced him to stop the treatment.
"It was a promising technology, we were excited about it, and we thought it might be a really good path to revolumize, but because I reacted so profoundly, we just couldn’t continue it, so that stopped after one therapy,” he recounted.
Netizens were left baffled by the ever-complicated nature of the procedures, still believing a healthy lifestyle to be the best approach
"That's it, stay on that hamster wheel. One procedure or medication after another. Keeping Big Pharma rich and putting the kids of plastic surgeons through college," one user said.
"These people are Big Pharma's dream come true!" another stated.
"These faces don't look better. They lose their unique features. They look like plastic generic dolls," a reader pointed out.
"Nothing screams, 'I'm insecure and have low self-esteem' louder than this."
"Whatever happened to natural beauty?" Netizens lamented the "never-ending cycle" of using Ozempic to lose fat—only to inject it back into their faces
