Boy George was born under the name George Alan O’Dowd and was the frontman of Culture Club, one of the biggest musical groups of the 1980s. The musician is better known to the public as an eccentric man with distorted views on fashion and free ideas about sex. Now Boy George writes novels, creates clothes, is engaged in photography and continues to compose music.
I suggest you take a look at how George’s appearance has changed over time. Let’s see how he looked in his youth and how his appearance changed after.
Boy George then and now
George Alan O’Dowd (real name) was born on July 14, 1961 in a suburb of London in a large family of 8 people. His father worked as a construction contractor, and his mother was a housewife and looked after six children.
The guy constantly tried to stand out against the gray mass, and hated the school costume. He had the same aversion to school as he had to the uniform. He hated grammar. Of the school subjects, singing and poetry were the most tolerable for him. But the young man has never had a special craving for sports.
At the age of 12, he dyed his hair for the first time, trying to look like Ziggy Stardust, and at the age of 15, the guy was kicked out of school in disgrace. After that, the teacher said, “O’Dowd! You will never be able to do anything with your own hands! You’re just a real fool!”.
The experiments with appearance were a consequence of O’Dowd’s homosexuality. His first sex with a man took place in a dark corner of a nightclub. At the same time, the guy became a real star of nightclubs for homosexuals, bisexuals and transvestites.
From the age of 17, the teenager left home, wandering through abandoned buildings, and working part-time in supermarkets and retail stores. In his spare time, the boy wrote poetry and music.
George’s biography changed dramatically after a happy accident. The lead singer of the band BOW WOW WOW Annabella Lu Win was looking for a backing vocalist. George O’Dowd immediately passed the casting, taking the nickname Lieutenant Lush. The public liked his image so much that his bandmates soon expelled him, fearing competition.
The musical group “Culture Club” was founded in 1981. At the same time, born George Alan O’Dowd added the prefix “Boy” to the name.
After the release of the single “Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?”, the whole of Britain was talking about the band. The fame that the musician dreamed of so much has finally been obtained. The appearance of the soloist was so extravagant that they talked about her much more than about the creativity of the collective.
George was distinguished by his quirky style: he wore pigtails, hats and bright suits. Boy George’s distinctive appearance has helped sell millions of copies of songs such as “Karma Chameleon”, “Time (Clock of the Heart)” and “Do You Just Want to Hurt Me”. His bright androgynous style of clothing and appearance made him instantly recognizable by millions of fans around the world.
In an interview , he said: “I’m ugly, and that’s why I make up. It helps me on stage. Instead of an ocean of unrestrained sex, I’d rather choose a cup of warm tea.”
Each of us has at least once stumbled across the Internet or seen on TV such a colorful character as Boy George, whose peak of popularity came in the 1980s as the vocalist of the group “Culture club”. At that time, the English singer was distinguished by an eccentric appearance, bright makeup and really good songs, which, combined with an unusual appearance, brought him popularity. But time passed, and as often happens in the world of show business, the group’s activities came to an end, and Boy George took up a solo career.
Unfortunately for Boy George, after the breakup of the band, life did not go smoothly for a long time. The reason for the collapse of Culture Club was the sexual partnership between George and John Moss, the guitarist of the band, drug use and the sad death of the keyboardist from an overdose, which he later told in an interview.
As a result, the group was reunited, but the wrong lifestyle, overeating, alcohol and other joys of star life led to the singer gaining a lot of excess weight and began to look not too attractive. Everyone thought that Boy George would never return to his former form, but in 2013, the 53-year-old singer amazed everyone by coming to the theater award ceremony thinner and prettier.
His eccentricity in images has remained unchanged over the years, but if in his youth Boy George allowed himself the most daring experiments with clothes, hairstyle and makeup that shocked the audience, now he is mostly limited to unusual hats.
Plastic surgery
Striking changes in appearance push fans and journalists to some questions.
Did Boy George have liposuction?
Many fans of the musician suspect that the reason for his weight loss is liposuction surgery. But according to George, plastic surgery has nothing to do with it. According to him, the reason for the improvement in appearance is a special diet compiled by nutritionist Amelia Freer.
Boy George has always been prone to fatness and in his autobiography told how it was not easy for him to lose weight.
Did Boy George have a nose job and a facelift?
George said he didn’t have a rhinoplasty.
In 2017, he said: “I think it’s probably wiser to have a facelift rather than filler injections.”
But George says he hasn’t had plastic surgery because, unlike most stars, he wants to age gracefully.