Plastic Surgery Expert Explains Why Simon Cowell's Face Is 'Melting' Amid Health Concerns
By now, most of us have seen the Twitter video of Simon Cowell that set tongues wagging about the remarkable change to his facial features.
When the footage emerged, trolls harassed the American Idol veteran relentlessly about his appearance. Many likened him to a wax figure at Madame Tussaud’s Museum.
It seems the public has not yet learned their lesson about speaking negatively about celebrities’ appearances. Black Panther star, Chadwick Boseman, faced criticism about his appearance before succumbing to colon cancer in 2020.
But for those who are genuinely concerned about Cowell’s well-being following the viral video, A YouTuber by the name of Lorry Hill shared her thoughts on what led to Simon’s new look.
In the video titled “Why is Simon Cowell’s Face Melting? His Plastic Surgery Nightmare,” Hill starts by telling viewers she has no personal verified knowledge of any possible cosmetic surgeries Cowell has undergone.
Hill also warns viewers not to shame or harass Cowell about any procedures discussed in her video as it can create problems for him and also render her less likely to create these informative videos.
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Simon Cowell's face has changed drastically, likely due to plastic surgery or fillers.Hill starts by explaining that Simon started out with a natural, rugged look. She believes his skin is thicker than most people’s creating a stronger likelihood of wrinkles.
Because of that, skin like Cowell’s seems to fall as the person ages, creating sagging around the neck and face that can result in things like crow’s feet and droopy jowls.
The first change that Hill notices is a difference in the appearance of Cowell’s nose. She notes that when he was a young man, the bridge of the nose was thicker, while the tip had a very thin appearance.
In later photos, his nose seems to have a more balanced look where the bridge looks thinned out while the tip is thicker than before.
Hill believes this is a result of revision rhinoplasty. In this procedure, cartilage is added to the tip of the nose while bone and cartilage are removed from the bridge.
RELATED: Plastic Surgeon Rejects Khloe Kardashian's Claim That She Only Had A Nose Job
Simon Cowell is rumored to have gotten fillers since 2012.Hill’s next hypothesis is around the appearance of Cowell’s skin. She believes that around 2012, he started getting dermal fillers to add fat to his face and create a more youthful appearance.
Specifically, Hill asserts that most of the injections were to the mid-face, leading to Cowell’s larger and fuller cheeks.
She points out that his face seems to get larger and larger as time progresses.
According to the YouTuber, these repeated injections have ruined the stars ‘skin envelope,’ the overlying skin and subcutaneous fat of the face, stretching and expanding it so it no longer falls naturally.
This, of course, created a need for more fillers, creating a cycle of fixing the flaws, and then correcting the side effects that resulted from the fix.
RELATED: Doctors Are Skeptical Of Bella Hadid’s Claims That A Nose Job Is The Only Cosmetic Procedure She Has Gotten
Simon Cowell says he regrets getting Botox and fillers.In April 2022, Simon Cowell attended the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards where he revealed that he’d had Botox injections and fillers in the past but regretted it and would no longer be getting either.
Cowell told The Sun, “There was a phase where everyone was having their faces pumped full of this and the other”, before proclaiming that his injections had made him look like “something out of a horror film”.
Hill believes that Cowell underwent a procedure where the fillers in his face were dissolved using an ultrasound technique to locate and remove them.
She says this could account for the “deflated” look on his face.
Hill believes Cowell has undergone numerous other procedures.It is believed that Cowell has also had Botox injected into his forehead. Hill says this is evidenced by its smooth appearance and hooded eyes, a telltale sign of poorly placed Botox.
In addition, she thinks he had a lower eyelid blepharoplasty, a cosmetic procedure in which loose skin is removed from the eyelid and the lid is sewn back into position, giving it a more youthful appearance.
Another adjustment Hill says the star has definitely undergone is an endoscopic brow lift.
In the December 2022 video, it is obvious that the position of Cowell’s eyebrows is much higher than before.
Lastly, noting the thinness of his lower face, the YouTuber suspects he has used a process called Thermage, a non-invasive radiofrequency therapy that can smooth, tighten, and contour skin.
However, Hill also explains that Cowell could have lost weight using a popular diabetes drug to promote rapid weight loss.
he doesn’t name the drug, but Ozempic has been increasing in popularity among those in Hollywood.
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The price tag for Cowell's alleged cosmetic work is high.According to Hill, if Cowell has partaken in every procedure that she believes he has, the price tag is through the roof, costing a mind-blowing $325,000 in total. For most regular folks, this equates to years of income and breaks down as follows:
Despite the likely unintended impact of his efforts to improve his looks, Hill still thinks Cowell could benefit from a full facelift to correct the unnatural appearance he now has and leave him finally satisfied with his own aesthetic.
RELATED: I Created A Body I Love With Plastic Surgery
It’s Simon Cowell’s face and everyone else should mind their business.Everyone in the world has things about their appearance that they would love to improve on. I suspect that if all of us were in the same tax bracket as Simon Cowell, we might make many of the same costly mistakes he has.
If we’ve learned nothing else from situations like Chadwick Boseman’s, we should know that celebrities are human beings with real-world problems just like the rest of us. It’s bad enough to be unhappy with yourself, let alone be insulted publicly.
The pressure to be perfect and ignore scrutiny is astronomical on the world stage. Hiding behind a keyboard and insulting another person’s looks doesn’t make you better than them. It simply makes you inhumane.
RELATED: Kim Kardashian Revives Rumors That She Had A Rib Removed To Look Slimmer After Revealing Stomach Scar
NyRee Ausler is a writer from Seattle, Washington, and the author of seven books. She covers lifestyle and entertainment and news, as well as navigating the workplace and social issues.
What It's Like To Remember Nearly Every Face
Part 1 of the TED Radio Hour episode What's in a Face. Check out Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.Yenny Seo remembers nearly every face — that's because she is a super recognizer. She describes what it's like to live with this extraordinary ability.
About Yenny SeoYenny Seo is based in Melbourne, Australia and currently works as a Korean–English translator.
This segment of the TED Radio Hour was produced by Andrea Gutierrez and edited by Sanaz Meshkinpour. You can follow us on Twitter @TEDRadioHour and email us at TEDRadio@npr.Org.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.Npr.Org.
Financial Face-off: Should You Opt For A High-deductible Health Plan With Lower Monthly Costs?
Hello and welcome to Financial Face-off, a MarketWatch column where we help you weigh financial decisions. Our columnist will give her verdict. Tell us whether you think she’s right in the comments. And please share your suggestions for future Financial Face-off columns by emailing our columnist at lalbrecht@marketwatch.Com.
It’s the time of year to sign up for a new health insurance plan, either through an employer or through the government’s Health Insurance Marketplace.
The decision may feel especially fraught this year. High inflation, layoffs and a potential recession are weighing on people’s minds and finances. Americans have been tightening their budgets and may be looking for ways to save money on their health-insurance costs. One way to do that, at least in terms of upfront costs, could be to sign up for a high-deductible health plan. These plans typically have lower monthly costs (premiums), but they have higher deductibles, or, the amount of money that you have to pay out of your own pocket before the insurance kicks in to cover healthcare costs.
So is this the year to try to save some cash by signing up for a high-deductible health plan?
Why it mattersIt’s no secret that healthcare is expensive in the U.S., but the language of health insurance often obscures that reality with euphemisms such as “cost-sharing,” “coinsurance,” “copay” and “deductible.” Here’s a quick translation: if you see one of those terms, just mentally replace it with a dollar sign, because it means you will be paying money.
Choosing a healthcare plan is important. Medical bills can strain a household’s finances, and healthcare debt is very common. More than half (57%) of Americans have incurred debt caused by a medical or dental expense in the last five years, according to a nationally representative survey released in June by KFF, an independent nonprofit that researches healthcare issues.
One of the survey’s more troubling findings was that even people who have health insurance fall into debt, with more than four in 10 insured adults reporting that they currently had health-related debt.
In other words, the decision about which health-insurance plan to choose can have far-reaching unintended consequences.
How much can you expect to pay for health insurance? If you get yours through your job, it depends on several factors including the size of your company and the age of its workforce. On average, workers with employer-based health insurance paid $6,106 per year toward family coverage and $1,327 for individual coverage, according to KFF. People at smaller companies typically have higher premiums and bigger deductibles.
The federal government defines a high-deductible health plan as one with a deductible of at least $1,400 for an individual and $2,800 for a family.
High-deductible health plans (HDHPs) often — but not always — come with a health savings account (HSA) where people can store money tax-free to pay for medical expenses.
HDHPs have lower premiums, but are they more affordable in the long run than traditional health plans? ValuePenguin compared HDHPs vs. Traditional plans in three scenarios and found that the HDHP plan holder would end up paying more overall than the traditional plan holder if they had medical expenses of $5,000 or $10,000 in a year.
However, the HDHP holder had lower overall costs than the traditional plan holder if their medical expenses were $1,000. “But banking on such an outcome — and such low need for medical care — can be a gamble in an unpredictable world,” ValuePenguin wrote.
The verdictIf you can pay the higher monthly costs, avoid a high-deductible health plan.
My reasons“It’s very difficult to accurately predict what your health-care needs are going to be for the coming year. And for that reason, it’s a good idea to sign up for the most comprehensive plan option that you can afford,” said Karen Pollitz, a senior fellow at KFF. Buying the cheapest option can open you up to the possibility that something is going to happen — you’ll get hit by a car, find a lump — and then “you’re going to find out the hard way how much your plan doesn’t cover and what you’re going to owe out of pocket,” Pollitz said.
As the KFF survey found, medical debt is common even among people with health insurance, she noted. “There are lots of reasons for that, but high deductibles are one culprit,” Pollitz said.
That debt can have serious long-term consequences, including wrecking your credit score, or forcing you to cut back on other household expenses including essentials like groceries, utilities and rent. You may even get into a situation where doctors refuse to treat you if you’re not paying your bills on time, leading you to delay needed health care. “Medical debt really can be the gift that keeps on giving,” Pollitz said, referencing the ongoing negative impacts on people’s finances.
Is my verdict best for you?On the other hand, HDHPs with health savings accounts attached to them can make good financial sense for “one group,” Pollitz said: people who are “wealthy enough to need a tax-preferred savings mechanism” and can afford to pay whatever health costs may arise. “Partners in law firms usually sign up for them, but the associates and secretaries usually would prefer not to,” she added.
Health savings accounts (HSAs) are a great way to grow wealth over time, said Eric Roberge, a certified financial planner and founder of Beyond Your Hammock, a Boston-based fee-only financial planning firm. “You get to contribute pre-tax dollars, and any growth on the money you invest within the HSA is tax-free as well,” he told MarketWatch. “If you withdraw money and use it on qualified medical expenses, that is also tax-free. It’s the only account that provides this triple tax advantage.” After age 65, you can use your HSA money for anything, not just medical expenses, but you will have to pay taxes on the withdrawals.
A high-deductible health plan with an HSA can work well if you are young, healthy and don’t incur a lot of medical costs. But if you use medical services frequently or have a lot of high-cost prescriptions, for example, this might not be the best option, because the cost of the high-deductible health plan might not be worth the access to the HSA, Roberge noted. “For folks who can manage their healthcare bills without issue while they’re earning an income from their job and don’t usually have a lot of medical costs each year, opting for the HDHP can not only save you on premiums each year, but it also gives you a chance to grow wealth for the long-term in a highly tax-advantaged way via an HSA,” Roberge said.
Tell us in the comments which option should win in this Financial Face-off. If you have ideas for future Financial Face-off columns, send me an email at lalbrecht@marketwatch.Com.
