Singer Lived with Overstretched Earlobes for 18 Years. Then He Surgically Reversed Them (Exclusive)
- - Singer Lived with Overstretched Earlobes for 18 Years. Then He Surgically Reversed Them (Exclusive)
Michelle LeeFebruary 6, 2026 at 12:00 PM
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Man who lived with overstretched ear lobes for 18 shows the results of his reduction surgery
AJ Rafael
AJ Rafael, a Filipino-American singer-songwriter and actor, underwent earlobe repair and reduction surgery after wearing ear gauges for 18 years
He posted a transformation video to Instagram documenting the progress of his results
Speaking with PEOPLE six months post-op, he shares what really inspired him to go through with the permanent transformation
AJ Rafael was known for an extreme look for nearly two decades before one thing inspired him to say goodbye to it permanently.
Rafael, who is a Filipino-American singer-songwriter and actor based in Los Angeles, shared an Instagram video on Jan. 8 about undergoing cosmetic surgery to repair and reduce the size of his earlobes, which he stretched out over 18 years by wearing ear plugs or gauges, round accessories made in different sizes to gradually stretch a piercing.
He'd been wearing the bold accessory since he was a teenager, a time in his life that was heavily influenced by the punk-rock and emo scenes. "I remember seeing a bunch of stretched ears at Warped Tour and I wanted to be like them. I also was just blooming as a musician and artist at the time, and I wanted to have a specific look," he tells PEOPLE.
At age 18, he got his ears done at a tattoo shop and fully took the plunge by getting size 0 piercings, which are 8 millimeters in size. As he continued to stretch his skin, he recalls the process as painful. "My ears would become hot and my mom would always ask me why I was torturing myself," he says. "A part of me just loved being different and having to go through something to achieve the look I wanted."
At the same time, he was misperceived because of his appearance, especially at the church where he played piano. He was told how "big" and "ugly" the holes in his ears were, but he didn't mind.
He says he wanted to show them that while he "looked different than what they wanted me to look like, I still played music and was a part of service the same as anyone else would be. I loved it especially when I would sing a solo and people after mass would come up to me and say how good I was despite having piercings and tattoos."
AJ Rafael wearing plugs
AJ Rafael
Rafael, now 36, continued to consider his appearance as he got older, but in the lens of parenthood. "When my wife [content creator Alyssa Navarro-Rafael] and I started to seriously talk about kids, which was about two years ago, I thought about surgery. I held off for so long because I did want to be the 'cool dad' with piercings and tattoos," he shares. But the thought of maintaining the look didn't fit into the family life he envisioned.
So about six months ago, Rafael, who is expecting his first child, paid a visit to Beverly Hills, Calif.-based surgeon Graham Ives to get his lobes reconstructed to their normal size after they'd been enlarged from jewelry that was 16 millimeters or 5/8 of an inch.
Within an hour procedure that cost $4,000, he got his earlobes repaired and reduced in size "because of how much my earlobes got bigger" over the two decades. It took about two months for the scars to be "completely unnoticeable."
AJ Rafael after his $4,000 reparative reduction surgery
AJ Rafael
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Recovery didn't hinder his daily life either, as he shared on Instagram that he visited Disneyland the day after his procedure. By this past January, he said that his lobes looked "normal" again.
"I am very pleased with the outcome, and I’d say I have the same amount of confidence I had before. I just have less to do, think about, and buy now," he tells PEOPLE. And on if he has future plans to get his ears repierced, he says a "simple stud will do."
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
