The Disturbing Ways Old Hollywood Actors Changed Their Appearances

According to Harper's Bazaar, beauty was so sought after in the early years of Hollywood that the phrase "looks over talent" became a backstage motto for most. Racked reports that there is an entire stockpile of photos exposing vintage Hollywood stars for exactly what they were — imperfect individuals just like everybody else.

Camera tricks as crafty as any Instagram filter were often used. But if all else failed, plastic surgery was, literally and figuratively, on the table. According to the Independent, plastic surgery predates vintage Hollywood and even predates anesthesia, as painful as that sounds. In 1901, a corporation known as the Derma Featural Company stepped on the scene promising surgical enhancements for several "ailments," the most notable being "ill-shaped noses." Rhinoplasty, a method used to reshape a patient's nose, was in full effect in the early 1900s.

Procedures wherein skin grafts were removed from the arm and redistributed to shape someone's nose were less talked about, but they most certainly happened. One particularly stomach-turning example of rhinoplasty consists of a patient's nose being injected with scorching hot paraffin wax and then molded like a sculpture upon the face (per the Independent). In worst-case scenarios, the wax could cause cancer or permanent disfigurement of the face. Some stars are believed to still have taken that risk, such as Marilyn Monroe, whose posthumous skull x-rays suggest the cartilage at the tip of her nose was reshaped (via Marie Claire).

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