Originally appeared on E! Online
After baring his soul about his weight loss journey, Jelly Roll is ready to bare his face.
The singer (real name Jason Bradley DeFord) shaved off the beard he’s had for over a decade — and the facial hair transformation makes him look nearly unrecognizable.
“I look like a ninja turtle,” he quipped in a Nov. 20 Instagram video. “Crazy. One of the reasons I even started growing a beard is I was so obese, it was just easier to cover up what was happening here.”
Jelly Roll showed off his clean-shaven look alongside a black hoodie and baseball cap while filming a video outside expressing his gratitude for his Grammy nominations.
“I don’t want to cry but wow, Country Album of the Year!” he continued. “Win, lose or draw, dude, holy f–k we won.”
Leading up to his transformation, Jelly Roll’s wife Bunnie Xo (real name: Alyssa DeFord) documented his facial hair transformation journey on social media.
“I have never seen this man without his facial hair. Not one frickin’ time,” Bunnie Xo — who married the “Liar” singer in 2016 — said in a video with her husband, posted on her Instagram account on Nov. 13. “And you guys know, as women, we get catfished, ’cause we don’t know what the hell’s under there.”
READ: Bunnie Xo and Jelly Roll Share Adoption Hopes Amid Struggle to Conceive Baby
And the “Dumb Blonde” podcast host shared that the decision to shave his beard was partly made due to his 180-pound weight loss transformation.
“My husband, in honor of his shoot that he did today, is going to shave off his beard completely, because now that he’s all so skinny, look at that frickin’ jawline,” she explained. “We want to see that jawline, right ladies?”
Next thing she knew, her husband had a “cop ‘stache,” which she declared was “fire.”
“You look so fine, dude,” Bunnie said. “The goatee, the mustache was fire. The total naked face, it’s not terrible.”
Indeed, Jelly Roll’s new look follows a full body transformation. The singer has been open about his struggles maintaining a healthy weight.
“In 2015, I weighed over 500 lbs. not sure how much , the Dr’s scale only weighed to 500 lbs,” he wrote on Instagram in 2018. “They suggested I go to a meat processor or truck stop to get my actual weight. It was the one of the most embarrassing days of my life.”
“I’ve been obese since I was a small child,” he continued. “All I’ve ever known was being fat , and I’m f—ing miserable. I wanna sky dive , bungee jump, ride a bull, parasail , ride roller coasters, I want to LIVE a normal life and have a normal relationship with food.”
And while Jelly Roll has drawn compliments over his slim new look, Bunnie Xo reminded fans of what is most important.
“He’s always had the same heart,” she said in a Sept. 28 TikTok video. “He’s always had the same soul. I think the most appropriate thing here to say is that he looks so much more healthier now that he’s lost weight.”
Next thing she knew, her husband had a “cop ‘stache,” which she declared was “fire.”
“You look so fine, dude,” Bunnie said. “The goatee, the mustache was fire. The total naked face, it’s not terrible.”
