The Incredible Before And After Of Stars Who Dissolved Fillers

When it comes to aging, people will do almost anything to beat Mother Nature at her own game. Overfilled lips and immobilized foreheads have become commonplace among Hollywood A-listers as they try to maintain their looks and their box office bankability. Considering the competitive nature of the entertainment industry, it's not surprising that some popular faces have become nearly unrecognizable in the quest for eternal youth. However, the hyper-plumped pout and the flawless face may be on the way out, thanks to many popular personalities who have gone public about having their dermal fillers dissolved in favor of a "less is more" approach to beauty.

As with most celebrity trends, it's usually not long before the public jumps on board. But are we really ready to kiss our lips goodbye just because all the cool kids are doing it? Charine Patel of Bisou Clinics said that's unlikely. "I don't think dermal fillers are a treatment that will slow down anytime soon," she told Glowday. "I just think people will start doing what they should have always done and get fillers to enhance and refresh." New York City-based dermatologist and co-founder of TRNR Skin, Dr. Ryan Turner, agreed. "While filler continues in its popularity, I am seeing that many people are seeking the use of less total volume of filler in order to achieve a more natural look," he told People." 

Whether they chose to start over with a more subtle approach or go cold turkey, the following stars have spoken out about their reasons for reversal and their desire to embrace a more natural appearance. 

When Carrie Bradshaw and the gang (minus one) returned to our screens with "And Just Like That," fans were delighted that the women were addressing the issues that come with being a middle-aged woman — they just didn't want them to look like middle-aged women. The only thing fans talked about more than the fashions were the faces of the show's stars, and Kristin Davis took the brunt of the criticism. As the perpetually perky Charlotte York Goldenblatt, Davis' character was still a preppy Park Avenue princess, but her personality was the only thing that was recognizable to fans who were quick to criticize her obviously fuller face and lips. "I have done fillers and it's been good, and I've done fillers and it's been bad," the actor explained in an interview with The Telegraph. "I've had to get them dissolved and I've been ridiculed relentlessly. And I have shed tears about it. It's very stressful." 

Part of the reason for Davis' dive into fillers in the first place was low self-esteem that resulted from constantly being reminded of what she looked like back in the "Sex and the City" days. "It's a challenge to remember that you don't have to look like that," she said. "The internet wants you to — but they also don't want you to. They're very conflicted." She's not wrong. The same fans who called out Davis for trying too hard were quick to slam her co-star Sarah Jessica Parker for not trying hard enough. Apparently the stunning transformation of SJP has not included cosmetic enhancements. It seems they are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

The only thing harder than being a celebrity in the public eye is being the child of one. Especially if your A-list mom is known as one of the most beautiful women in the world. That was the case for Tallulah Willis, the youngest daughter of celebrities Demi Moore and Bruce Willis, who has been open about how her lack of resemblance to her superstar mom affected her mental and physical health.  "I punished myself for not looking like my mom, after being told I was BW twin since birth," Willis shared in an Instagram post. "I resented the resemblance as I believed wholly my 'masculine' face was the sole reason for my unlovability — FALSE!" 

Disliking her appearance is just one of the tragic details about Tallulah Willis. In her quest for beauty, she turned to fillers, and made herself almost unrecognizable.  It wasn't until she began working on herself from the inside out that Willis had them dissolved. "I was scared to mention but I recently got my filler dissolved — after being very emotionally and psychologically wrapped up in what I thought it gave me — I hadn't seen my real bone structure in like 6 years," she wrote in an Instagram caption that accompanied a close up photo of what appeared to be her filler-free, filter-free face. "Still learning to dial back the futzing and the pokes and sit with myself as I am, which is hard when your brain tells you that yes! more is better!" Or, in her case, Moore. 

What started as a way for older women to disguise the signs of aging suddenly found an audience with the younger crowd. Women in their teens and early 20s began turning to dermal fillers to create a certain visual aesthetic. Specifically, oversized lips. Molly-Mae Hague, a former "Love Island" contestant, was one of those young women. Hague began filling her lips before she was legally old enough to drink, and she just kept going, adding enhancements like jaw filler and veneers. In an interview on the podcast, "The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett," Hague opened up about her experience. "I wouldn't say I got addicted to it, but by the age of 21, I didn't look like the same person," she said. 

The turning point for Hague came when she posted a YouTube video with her face visibly distorted from a recent filler injection and a screenshot from it went viral. 'It was horrendous. It was utterly horrendous," she told Bartlett. "My face was literally like, it was just awful. That was the moment for me as well where I was like, I think things need to change." Hague began the years-long process of dissolving her fillers and removing her veneers, documenting her experience on her social media channels in an attempt to discourage other young woman from making the same mistake she made. "I just stripped myself back," she said. "And weirdly I felt the prettiest I had ever felt once it had all gone." 

Some of Ariana Grande's biggest controversies over the years have had to do with her looks. But while the "Wicked" star might be "Into You," but she's no longer into fillers. "I feel like my relationship to beauty has changed so much over the years, especially because I started so young," Grande told Vogue when sharing some of her favorite makeup tips and tricks. As part of the tutorial, the pop princess admitted that she had "a ton of lip filler over the years," but that she no longer uses it or Botox. "For a long time beauty was about hiding for me," said the visibly emotional singer. "And now I feel like maybe it's not." 

Being under the spotlight can feel like being under a microscope where every perceived flaw and imperfection is magnified and everyone has an opinion. In an interview with French content creator Crazy Sally, Grande equated her experience with fame to being a "specimen in a Petri dish." She continued, saying, "I'm really lucky to have the support system that I have and to just know and trust that I'm beautiful. But I do know what the pressure of that noise feels like."

In her Vogue video, Grande didn't rule out the possibility that she might once again go under the needle, or even under the knife, but for now she said she is embracing signs of aging. "I hope my smile lines get deeper, and I laugh more and more," she said. 

Angela White, more commonly known as Blac Chyna, was famously part of the hit reality show "Keeping Up with the Kardashians," and she kept up with them in more ways than one. When it came to altering her physical appearance, Kim K. and the crew had nothing on Chyna who had everything from her breasts to her butt augmented. If it could be lifted, injected, filled, or frozen, she was there for it — until she wasn't. Fed up with her celebrity persona, the former model and ex-girlfriend of Rob Kardashian was ready to get back to her true self. In a video she shared on Instagram documenting the dissolve, Chyna told her injector, "First of all, I'm tired of the look. And it's just not flattering, it's not what I look like. It totally changed my face, and I'm just ready to get back to Angela." 

According to award-winning Harley Street aesthetics doctor, Sophie Shotter, Chyna's desire to return to her former self was not uncommon. "People seeking reversal are those who have ended up with looks which are not congruent with what they want now — that may be because of a change in their own aesthetic ideals, or because they've [realized] they had taken the transformation too far," she told Hello! Magazine. The former Onlyfans star told TMZ Live that she was "sick and tired of being sick and tired" and that she wanted to be a "better mom" to her two kids.

It's not just the women who are getting tweaked, nipped, and tucked. Vanity doesn't discriminate, and there are plenty of men who flock to cosmetic injectors to look refreshed, refined, or rejuvenated. Sexy Simon Cowell was one of them. Known for his brutal honesty, boyish grin, and black tee shirts, the former "American Idol" judge was easy to spot both on and off screen. That is, until Simon Cowell's transformation had him looking unrecognizable. The music mogul had copped to being a Botox lover but he shocked viewers when he debuted a much smoother, if not somewhat disproportional, face. The change occurred around the same time that Cowell embraced a vegan lifestyle and lost 20 pounds. Some attributed his new face to the weight loss, but Cowell copped to having had a thread lift to address his sagging skin. "There's lots of things you can do now. You don't just have to stuff your face with filler and Botox," he said per The Sun. 

Cowell eventually stopped with injections, saying that when his appearance frightened his young son, he knew he needed to dial it back. "There was a phase where everyone was having their faces pumped full of this and the other," he told The Sun, admitting that he may have overdone it. "There was a stage where I might have gone a bit too far," he continued. "I saw a picture of me from 'before' the other day, and didn't [recognize] it as me first of all. Eric (his son) was in hysterics. Enough was enough. There is no filler in my face at all now. Zero." 

From the day she danced with Bruce Springsteen, people fell in love with beautiful, blue-eyed Courteney Cox. So when one of America's favorite friends started pumping her face full of fillers, the public noticed, but the star herself did not. 'My biggest beauty regret is fillers," the "Scream" star told Woman magazine (via Daily Mail). "There's so much pressure to stay looking young in this industry that once you start, it becomes a bit of a domino effect and you keep on having more. To the rest of the world your face is so obviously changing, but to yourself — because you're only having one procedure at a time — you don't notice."

The untold truth of Courteney Cox is that looks have always been important to her. In an interview with The Times, she described her family as "looks oriented" and said that her mother equated her own self-worth with beauty. Couple that mindset with the demands of being one of the most recognizable stars in Hollywood, and its easy to see how Cox could get caught up in the game of chasing youth. "The scrutiny is intense, but I don't know if it could be more intense than what I put on myself," she admitted.

Hindsight is 20/20 and Cox told Women's Health that looking back, she can see where she went wrong. "I look at pictures of me from when I thought I looked okay, and I can't believe it." After dissolving her fillers, she began to rely on quality skincare to keep her looking beautiful.

The daughter of famous actor Tippi Hedren, Melanie Griffith grew up surrounded by all the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. Her own life reads like a movie script with a marriage, divorce, and remarriage and divorce to Hollywood heartthrob Don Johnson, followed by a life that included well documented substance abuse, a stint in rehab, two more failed marriages, and cosmetic surgery – lots of cosmetic surgery. 

Maybe it's because the "Working Girl" star was so influenced by her mother's cool, blond beauty, or maybe because she'd grown up with a front-row seat to the industry, but whatever the reason, Griffith underwent so many procedures that she barely resembled her former self. However, it wasn't until the "Milk Money" star heard that people were saying negative things about how she looked that she realized what she'd done. In an interview with Porter (per Today), the mom of three admitted, "I didn't (realize) until people started saying. 'Oh my god, what has she done?!'"  "I was so hurt I went to a different doctor and he started dissolving all of this s*** that this other woman doctor had put in. Hopefully, I look more normal now." Apparently the Hollywood powers that be thought so when they awarded Griffith with the timeless beauty award at the 2nd Annual Hollywood Beauty Awards in Los Angeles — an honor she dedicated to her mother. "She is the timeless beauty," she said in her speech (via People). 

Lottie Moss shares a last name and a career path with her more famous older sister, but Kate Moss' strained relationship with her sister Lottie may have played a role in how the younger Moss model's path took a sharp turn. Growing up in the shadow of her super famous supermodel sister let Moss feeling insecure. "I'd go to my friends' houses and there would be pictures of her on the walls — and it really triggered a lot of abandonment issues," Moss told Daily Mail. Feeling lost and alone, the young model started an Onlyfans page and found comfort in alcohol and drugs. She also turned to fillers to fill the void, plumping up her lips and jawline. Eventually, Moss turned a corner. She went to rehab to deal with the substance abuse, and to Dr Roshan Ravindran to deal with her filler mistakes. 

A video shared on Dr. Roshan's Instagram feed features Moss and the doctor talking about her procedure. "We carefully dissolved migrated, overfilled lip and jaw filler that had masked her natural beauty," Dr. Roshan wrote in the caption. The results spoke for themselves, but Moss also spoke up about them, saying, "I just feel like myself again. I feel like my face looks like me again." In the caption, Dr. Roshan warned against using too much filler and explained how it can "create and unsettling disconnect between you and your reflection."

HGTV star Christina Haack made a name for herself by renovating houses and then selling them alongside her then-husband Tarek El Moussa on the hit show "Flip or "Flop." But houses weren't the only things the beautiful blonde was fixing up. Christina Haack's stunning style transformation was an impressive as the home renovations and only added to her popularity. Along with fame came rumors about Christina Haack that we can't ignore, detailing everything from her failed marriages to her parenting skills and what, if any cosmetic work she's had done. Addressing the speculation, Haack took to Instagram (per People) in a now-deleted Story to share that she had gotten under-eye filler but had it dissolved due to a complication. "In April I had a reaction to under eye filler. Super swollen and it wouldn't go down with time," she wrote alongside a selfie that she called "scary."

Complications like Haack's are one of the biggest reasons people are choosing to reverse their fillers. But why do they inject it in the first place? "The truth is, you can't really fault someone for wanting to try these things," Celia Ellenberg, an editorial director and brand strategist and the former global beauty and wellness director of U.S. Vogue told The Nod magazine. "When you see a person like Demi Moore at Cannes and she looks amazing, it's hard not to think 'I'll have what she's having.'" But thanks to celebs like Haack sharing their experiences, people are now more aware of what can go wrong.