We’re all pretty used to a makeover. There are countless movies where a mousy-looking girl who usually wears something like overalls dons a little black dress, someone does her makeup and hair, replaces glasses with contact lenses and voila she’s a beauty. It’s largely the same with celebs. Especially if you compare their childhood photos with photos of them at the peak of their popularity. But makeunders—that’s a whole different story. It’s quite a recent trend, and it basically revolves around going from a loud and flashy look to something a lot more toned down, refined, and softer looking. Let’s take a look at some celebrities who have had a makeunder, you’ll be surprised how dramatic these can be.
1. Pamela Anderson
Pamela Anderson has built her whole career on being the bombshell. Tight bodycon outfits, big hair, lots of smoky eyeshadow, fake lashes, juicylipstick—the whole shebang. But these days she’s reinvented herself, and we see her in flowy, almost modest dresses and almost barefaced at events. When she does makeup, it’s a barely there natural look. She says it’s a form of self-acceptance and being comfortable with herself. In all honesty, after years of seemingly catering to the male gaze, Pamela’s appearance has improved significantly. She looks great.
2. Miley Cyrus
Miley Cyrus has gone through quite a few transformations throughout her career, but going from her Bangerz era to Malibu felt like the most obvious one. She went from being obviously rebellious and as loud in your face as possible to being soft, feminine, and natural. Was it deliberate or just a natural progression? It’s hard to tell. But it’s a makeunder we all noticed.
3. Blac Chyna
Blac Chyna is a model, social media and television personality, and you probably know her because she had her own Kardashian-adjacent reality TV show called “Rob & Chyna” and later on “The Real Blac Chyna.” She used to dress very similarly to early-years Nicki Minaj, think bright colours and colorful makeup. But around the time she started hanging out with the Kardashians she went through a style overhaul and started wearing more neutrals, wearing her hair all natural and looking a lot more toned down and sleek. She also took out her cheek piercings and recently dissolved her fillers for a more natural look. She also recently started going by her actual name, Angela White, instead of her pseudonym, Blac Chyna.
4. Nicki Minaj
Nicki Minaj’s style used to be quite bold and striking. And it worked for her for a while, she wore neon wigs and incredibly colourful makeup. But as you might’ve noticed recently, she’s decided that “less is more” and has toned down her style quite a lot. Now Nicki embraces neutrals, is obsessed with nude lipsticks, and while she definitely likes to play around with wigs, she often goes for natural shades.
5. Lady Gaga
Remember Lady Gaga back in the day? She was all about outrageous costumes that ranged from simply attention-grabbing to wearable art pieces. The most shocking one we all remember was that time she wore a literal meat dress. But her Joanne era has her almost stripped back. Don’t get us wrong, Gaga still has an incredible and unique style, but compared to her past days, she looks almost unrecognizable now.
6. Gwen Stefani
During her No Doubt days, Gwen Stefani’s style embodied a DIY pop-punk princess aesthetic, featuring occasional blue hair and rhinestones on her face. However, over time, it appears that she has embraced a sleek, classic glam style characterized by a signature red lip. This change in style may simply be a result of growing up and choosing to reflect that maturity in her fashion choices.
7. Kesha
Kesha used to be all about fishnet tights, leotards, bedazzled eyebrows, glitter teas, and feathers in her hair. It was a rock star meets glitter art project, but that was her vibe, and it worked for her. Now she’s mostly seen wearing very natural makeup looks, and no fishnets are in sight. Not so sparkly and wild anymore, huh?
8. Courtney Love
90s Courtney was as punk and messy as it gets. You couldn’t tell if she woke up like that with smeared black eyeliner and messy hair or if it was styled that way. But that was her signature look in those days: black from head to toe, a choker and some fishnets and lots of eyeliner with a red lip. These days Courtney has fully reinvented her style and chose to go Hollywood glam instead.
9. Perez Hilton
Perez Hilton never claimed to be a fashion icon, in fact he made his name mostly sitting in front of his computer and gossiping about celebs. Back in the day he used to be chubby, didn’t really have a style, and used to colour his hair all sorts of neon colors. But later on he had quite a transformation. He lost weight (the hard way with diet and exercise), got abs, and let his hair be his natural colour for a change, and who would’ve thought—that suited him much more than pink hair and a weird hoodie.
9 Dramatic Celebrity Makeunders That We Never Saw Coming
