Megan Fox, Before and After

Megan first stepped onto the red carpet at age 16, and evidently, she was already dyeing her naturally brown hair black. With the matching black eyeliner, she looks like she could be in her 20s, not her teens. Take note of her nose, as well as her front teeth (which seem to slightly protrude), because both appear to change not long after this.

She stuck with the same aesthetic the following year, and I think her eyebrows may have got even skinnier (as was the trend!). In 2014, she said that over-plucking her brows and sunbathing were her two biggest beauty regrets³—so this is no spray tan. But even though it’s kind of a “harsh” look by today’s beauty standards, she is still undeniably striking. 

She took a break from black hair in 2005, and it’s funny, you almost don’t recognize her—that’s how synonymous it was with her image in those early days. The flat-ironed hair, tanned skin, iridescent lip gloss and of course, super-arched brows were all the rage in the mid-‘00s. 

After dabbling with lighter hair, she returned to her signature colour at age 20, resembling the Megan we know today. (Her agent reportedly told her, “Don’t ever dye your hair blonde.”³) Again, take a look at her nose. There seems to be a bump on the bridge, but later on, it mysteriously disappears.

It was in 2007 that she skyrocketed to fame as Hollywood’s hottest new star. We know that blockbuster films come with a budget for the best styling teams—and so she suddenly upgraded her image with glossier hair and more sophisticated makeup. Her lips and teeth remained au naturel... for the moment.

By 2008, Megan was a household name and an international sex symbol, with FHM readers voting her the “Sexiest Woman in the World.”⁴ It was around this time that she was often compared to Angelina Jolie, but aside from the dark hair and tattoos, there’s not much resemblance. Unlike Angelina’s, Megan’s lips appear to be enhanced here, especially the upper one. I also suspect she had some cosmetic dentistry by this point to perfect her smile.

The following year, we got a glimpse of the Goth style that she would re-embrace a decade later. Gone is the Barbie pink lipstick and matching blush with smoky eyes and a tan. Now, she’s rocking her naturally pale skin, and the main adornment is a vampy berry lip colour. She was 23 here, so the baby fat is gone and her face is becoming more angular.

When Megan showed up on the red carpet with a dramatically plumped-up appearance, the accusations began to fly. At the time, she was accused of going too far with Botox, and that may be the case—but it’s fillers like Restylane that would account for her inflated-looking lips and cheeks. (Botox doesn’t add volume.) The fact that she was only 24 made this all the more shocking. Remember, this was before injectables were mainstream!

A year later, and the injections apparently had “settled”—either that, or she may have had some of them dissolved. To me, it seems like there may still be filler in her cheeks, but her lips are back to a natural look. Meanwhile, she is starting to lighten up her hair colour and grow back those over-tweezed brows.

Megan had her first of three children in 2012, and only two months after giving birth, she returned to the red carpet. She shows no signs of lost sleep like the typical new mom—in fact, she’s looking more glamorous than ever. Her skin is luminous and wrinkle-free, and her hair is thick and lustrous. (“Post-baby I had really good hair,” she later recalled.³)

She stepped out again a month later, but after that, her public appearances would become few and far between. (Having children “kind of saved me honestly. I needed an escape,” she later revealed.⁴) Out of all her different looks over the years, this one is my favourite because it’s the most natural. The only indication of cosmetic work is that her upper lip is bigger than the lower one.

After welcoming baby number two, Megan attended one more event before taking a long hiatus to focus on motherhood. She was 28 by this time, and back to the same black hair that she first rocked as a teen. But now that she’s no longer tanning, her face is paler than ever (it doesn’t actually match her neck!).

That brings us to 2022—and if you told me that this was Kim Kardashian in blue contact lenses, I’d have no reason to doubt you! The resemblance is uncanny, even though the two started out in life looking nothing alike. (And this is a red carpet shot, so she really does look this way now—no Instagram filters were involved!) It just goes to show you how cosmetic interventions have created what one writer called “a single, cyborgian look.”⁶

It’s been more than a decade since Megan first addressed the rumours that she was dabbling with injections—or had even gone under the knife.

“I will say for people who question the authenticity of my lips, you can clearly see that my lips are my lips,” she said in 2010, as she pointed to a photo of her teenage self. She was seemingly against plastic surgery, too. “I would encourage anyone to first speak with a therapist, to try and figure out where this want comes from, because a lot of times it’s not related to your teeth or your nose or your chin—the surgery is not going to alleviate that insecurity for you.”⁷

Then, in 2011, she famously uploaded photos of herself with a furrowed brow to Facebook, as proof that she hadn’t had Botox.⁸

But fast-forward to 2022, and if her new look is any indication (not to mention her silence on the subject!), she’s no longer against cosmetic procedures at all.

So what do the experts think she’s had done?

“Her eyes have been reshaped with blepharoplasty (eyelid surgery),” says Dr. Tim Sayed. “It appears she’s also had Botox to the forehead and crow’s feet around the corner of her eyes. Megan has also most likely had subtle lip fillers using Juvederm or Restylane as well as fillers to the apples of the cheeks to give her that plumper look. Her nose shows signs of rhinoplasty with corrective refinement to the tip and a narrower bridge of the nose.”⁹

“She has what’s called an inverted V deformity in this previous photo [from 2004], which means she’s probably had a previous rhinoplasty there,” says Dr. Daniel Barrett. “Now, you don’t see it... so she probably had it fixed with either filler or a revision rhinoplasty as well. I also think it might be rhinoplasty because she has alar rim retraction [after] that she doesn’t have [before].”¹⁰

“Looking at her teeth, I think she’s had a procedure to correct her gummy smile, whether it’s Botox or lip lengthening or gum surgery,” says Dr. Charles S. Lee. “Her nose looks obviously narrower to me, and also for her eyelids, it looks to me like there’s less distance between the brow and the eyelashes, suggesting she’s had some tissue removed. And there’s a little bit of hollowing as well, [which is] consistent with surgery. She’s had forehead Botox, she’s had fillers to her cheeks and jawline, and plumped up her lips with filler.”¹¹