These are photos of normal 22-year-old Zayn Malik at the Asian Awards ceremony in London on Friday. Zayn brought his mom, Tricia, as his date. Tricia is English, and Zayn’s dad (Yaser Malik) is British Pakistani. Zayn is also an ambassador for the British Asian Trust. He was very chuffed to be honored at the Asian Awards where he received the award for Outstanding Contribution to Music.

Everyone has been talking about Zayn’s new look, which includes a new nose piercing and (more importantly) a buzzed head. Yes, Zayn has shaved that One Direction right out his hair! The internet is ablaze with GIF-shrines to mourn the lost locks. What do you think of Zayn’s new look? I’m sad to see the awe-inspiring headband disappear, but he looks quite handsome here. With that chiseled face and those long eyelashes, I can see why the girls cry for Zayn. Here’s his speech:

“Okay so, I’m not really a guy who normally does speeches. Obviously I have to say thank you for this. This is an amazing evening. I’m massively honored to be here tonight. It’s incredibly humbling to accept an award on the same stage as some people I’ve looked up to throughout my entire life. I want to thank God for allowing me to be able to do what my dreams were. And I’d like to thank my mom and dad for making me Asian. [crowd laughs] I’d also like to take this moment to thank four of the best guys I’ve ever met, everything I’ve done with them will stay with me for the rest of my life. And yeah, this is the future. Thank you very much for everything.”

[From Now Magazine on YouTube]

Zayn mumbled his words a bit, but he didn’t seem as nervous as I expected. He was gracious and paid lip service to his former band members, which was wise. A lot of 1D fans are still very upset at him and see him as a traitor. It doesn’t help that Simon Cowell is continuing the narrative. Simon kept Zayn on his label, so it’s not like Simon’s losing money from Zayn’s departure. Simon still gave a new interview about how he wanted to “jump off a cliff” when Zayn left the band. Simon did admit, “I kind of knew this was coming” because he knew how unhappy Zayn was for the past few years.

FYI: Louis Tomlinson just started his own record label. He wants to “potentially give new artists a platform,” but it sounds like he’s planning for his post 1D days too.

View image | gettyimages.com

View image | gettyimages.com

View image | gettyimages.com

Photos courtesy of Getty & WENN