Rise of ‘cut glass’ inner jawlines drives ordinary Brits to £5,000 lipo surgery

When an influencer with more than 700,000 followers got chin and jawline liposuction in October, a collective shiver ran through her comments section.

Summer Fox, 27, used only ‘the least extreme bits of the procedure’ but left four million viewers feeling nauseous by the sheer size of the anesthetic needle, let alone the metal bar being ‘dragged’ across her face.

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She opted for the treatment, which usually costs between £3,000 and £5,000, because of the insecurity about having a double chin from the side when she was “naturally relaxed”.

Unlike many other plastic surgery procedures, the patient is awake during jaw and chin liposuction (local anesthetic is used to numb the area), meaning cowboy beauticians offer it in salons on the high street.

In recent years, the phrase “snatched jawline” has become increasingly popular on social media.

Videos of women with enviably sharp jawlines and chins regularly rack up more than three million views on TikTok, with influencer Aisha Mian being praised for having the ‘world’s strongest jawline’ with 345 million likes across her videos.

Supermodels like Bella Hadid, Adriana Lima and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley are regularly complimented for their chiselled side profiles and told that their jawlines can “cut glass”.

More than 50 percent of British women are concerned about their double chin, according to research published last year by the British newspaper The Guardian Center for Surgery.

And according to an award-winning esthetician and doctor, women who suffer from these insecurities use filters to pretend they do.

If the filters aren’t satisfying enough, they look for chin and jaw liposuction in high-risk locations.

“Social media and selfie culture have been a big driver of the patterns we see in aesthetics, because we so often view ourselves through filters,” says Dr. Ed Robinson on Fabulous.

“These filters are now becoming more and more advanced.

“They can slim your face and they can dramatically improve your skin quality.

“Patients often submit filtered photos of themselves and say that’s how they want to look.

“If you constantly view yourself through a social media lens, you become a little distorted about what reality is.”

Risky business

Women with enough money are willing to pay more than £5,000 to banish their double chins and rip away their jawlines.

Those who can’t afford it go to cowboy parlors to get the treatment for a fraction of the price – and a fraction of the safety.

Our research has found that beauty salons in north-west London are offering facial ‘liposuction’ procedures at prices from £20 for 30 minutes – and these are not carried out by medical professionals.

While TikTokkers getting the expensive treatment for free may make facial liposuction seem like a relaxing process in swanky Harley Street clinics, this is far from the reality in non-clinical salons.

Earlier this month, stomach-churning undercover footage exposed the shocking reality of chin liposuction procedures carried out by cosmetic cowboys in Britain’s salons.

Cameras captured the shocking moment a beautician pierced a client’s cheek with a sharp, metal “suction stick” to suck out fat.

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She then let a student with less than an hour of training take over.

Secret recordings also revealed that the beautician admitted to damaging “two nerves” and “one artery” during the hundreds of procedures she performed on students.

The chilling clips were captured as part of an ITV News investigation into dangerous cosmetic practices by ‘Wild West operators’.

The images went viral on social media, with many Brits wondering whether it’s really worth risking your life in the pursuit of a sharp jawline.

The Kylie Jenner effect

Unfortunately, some women are still persuaded to make supposedly good deals by cowboy practitioners who prey on insecurities to make a quick buck.

“We are the only country in the world where it is legal for that to happen, which is absolutely obscene,” says Dr. Ed to Fabulous.

“Whether or not those celebrities like Kylie Jenner or Bella Hadid have actually undergone jaw augmentation (in many cases they have come out and said they have), with makeup, lighting and contouring it can appear as if they have, and people have speculated about it.

“People want to look like the celebrities they see.

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“The Kardashians in particular have a huge influence.

“It is mainly younger women who follow these trends.”

Despite being only 27 years old, Kylie Jenner is rumored to have gone under the knife several times.

She is constantly plagued by accusations that she has undergone multiple Brazilian Butt Lifts, which involve transferring fat from other parts of the body to augment the butt and thighs, and then removing the fat.

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In May, fans noticed changes to her jaw and chin: it was sharper and pointier than before.

“Her ‘new’ jaw is too projected and has taken away the softer, feminine shape she previously had,” said one critic on Instagram.

“It sure is expensive to have the jawline she ‘has’… I’m tired of this,” sighed a second.

But hordes of fans defended her, saying they “loved the new look” and thought the new “masculine angle” gave her look a new twist.

Cheap but not very cheerful

In a bid to emulate the chiselled profile of the youngest Kar-Jenner sister, British women weathering the cost of living crisis are looking for cheap jaw and chin liposuction on the high street, doctors have warned.

And as the saying goes: if you buy cheap, you should buy twice.

“It really should be done by a surgeon because it’s quite a complicated procedure,” says Dr. Ed.

“It is absolutely not appropriate for a non-physician to do this.

“It is actually very dangerous and there are many potential risks, such as infections, scarring, nerve damage and causing fatal blood clots.

It is definitely not appropriate for a non-physician to offer jawline liposuction. In fact, it is very dangerous and there are many potential risks such as infection, scarring, nerve damage and causing fatal blood clots

Dr. Ed

“It is not something that anyone should be doing on the high street without a significant medical background, and it should be done by a surgeon in a CQC regulated premises.”

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and social care in England and ensures quality and safety in salons and clinics that register under it.

“There are complicated and important structures, especially around the neck, that you don’t want to mess with,” continues Dr. Ed.

“You have most of the nerves going to your brain and to your body and you have large blood vessels. There’s a lot of potential for damage to be done by someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing.”

Dr. Ed urged women considering the treatment to research the different types of liposuction before opting to have the fat sucked from their jawline and chin.

There are complicated and important structures, especially around the neck, that you don’t want to mess with

Dr. Ed

“There’s vasolipo and then there’s general liposuction,” he said of the two categories. “These are all usually done by plastic surgeons and many require general anesthesia.

“There is always a risk when you undergo a procedure, whether in a hospital or on the shopping street.

“If it happens on the high street, it should always happen in a hospital-quality building.”

Dr. Ed adds: “Most non-plastic surgery doctors do not perform these procedures as they need to be carried out by someone who is properly equipped and trained by the Royal College of Surgeons.

“The ‘facetite’ hybrid procedure we see influencers undergoing doesn’t really resemble liposuction, so cosmetic non-surgical doctors will offer this.

“However, technically it still counts as a surgical procedure, so the CQC regulations you have for that still have to be of surgical standard.”