After Harry Styles revealed he had cut his hair, One Direction fans eagerly awaited to see the star's new look. A photo of the 22-year-old with short hair soon surfaced causing a social media meltdown as compliments began to pour in – but it was soon revealed that all was not what it seemed.
Ellis Lacy shared a photo of himself having face swapped with Harry Styles
The photo, which was widely shared by fans, is actually of The X Factor contestant Ellis Lacy, who had jokingly posted a photo of himself on Instagram using a face swapping application to merge his face with Harry's.
"Me with @harrystyles face #1direction #harrystyles," he captioned the snap, including a laughing face emoji to show his amusement. However, the confusion soon began when Ellis shared the photo on Twitter, alongside a photo of Harry's chopped ponytail. "Harry looks cool now he cut his hair," he quipped in the caption.
Ellis also posted the snap on Twitter causing confusion amongst some fans
His joke inadvertently caused a frenzy amongst some One Directioners, who believed the photo to be genuine, and soon the photo was appearing on fan websites, with compliments and excited comments pouring in.
Although Harry himself has yet to step out debuting his new short hair, he did reveal he had it chopped, teasing his 17.2 million Instagram followers with a photo of his hand, holding his chopped ponytail. "Whoops. #Littleprincesstrust," he simply wrote alongside the snap, explaining he was donating his hair to charity.
Harry teased fans with a snap of himself holding his freshly chopped tresses
The British singer had previously revealed his plans to donate his hair, during an appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden. Sat with band members Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan, Harry was quizzed by James about his hair, and explained he wanted to grow his locks to a length of at least nine inches long – the minimum length required in order to be able to donate it to charity.