History Main / UnnecessaryMakeover

* ''Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond'': In the early seasons, Patricia Heaton has a sense of UnkemptBeauty which ties in nicely with her character: as a frequently-frazzled mom of three small children, she's more focused on taking care of her family than her own appearance, but she's clearly naturally attractive, wears flattering, stylish-yet-practical clothing, and has her hair in a well-groomed but low-maintenance bob. In later seasons, though, the producers apparently decided that Heaton needed to look sexier and started putting her in ''much'' more form-fitting, bust-enhancing outfits, along with growing her hair out to a style that looked like it required most of her attention. Many fans dislike the change and prefer Debra's original look, especially because the makeover is closely tied to her {{Flanderization}} of being overly controlling and nasty to Ray. Compare [[https://raymond.fandom.com/wiki/Debra_Barone?file=Debra.png early Debra]] and [[https://www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/news/everybody-loves-raymond-creator-says-network-wanted-hotter-debra/ later Debra]] here; note that the second link reveals that the producers initially wanted someone "hotter" for the part, suggesting that the wardrobe change was their way of getting their way.

* ''Film/AvengersEndgame'' has a RareMaleExample right at the beginning of the movie, when Steve Rogers shaves off the ManlyFacialHair he grew in the [[Film/AvengersInfinityWar previous movie.]] The vast majority of fans thought Cap looked ''great'' with facial hair and mourned its absence in ''Endgame''. In this case, it may have been necessary for plot-related, spoilery InUniverse reasons, to make it easier for Cap to [[spoiler:[[ItMakesSenseInContext impersonate his past self.]]]]

See also: JustTheWayYouAre, for a similar reaction in-story, which is probably also a FemininityFailure for her. Can be a result of UnkemptBeauty. See also FansPreferTheNewHer where the opposite happens -- the characters hate the makeover but the fans prefer it.

** An odd example happens in Season 1 of ''Canada's Drag Race''. For the second runway, the queens had to redo their first time ever in drag with their present-day skills (complete with photos for comparison). For Kyne, whose first time was dressing as [[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid Ursula]] for Halloween, the redo somehow looked ''worse'' than the original, leading to her elimination.

* ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'':

* Ashley's new look in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' is this. Her PrimAndProperBun in the first two games is a much more practical hairstyle for her [[SpaceMarines vocation]], and more flattering to her face shape than the new PeekABangs.

* More than a few fans preferred Violet from ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'' when she had PeekABangs. Her character development involved her gaining more confidence and no longer hiding behind her bangs; however, she looked quite cute with her original hairstyle. Thankfully her gloomy goth look with PeekABangs came back for ''WesternAnimation/Incredibles2''.

* Allison Reynolds, Creator/AllySheedy's character in ''Film/TheBreakfastClub'' has this happen to her. Many people just find her cuter as the "[[CloudCuckooLander Basket Case]]", with her post-makeover look being intensely awkward and dated-looking, frequently compared to ''Film/TheStepfordWives''. It's one of the most famous examples in movies, [[MisaimedFandom but it's also a rather misunderstood element]] -- in the film, Allison is a closet AttentionWhore, whose behaviors and manner of dress is meant to draw attention to herself without having to ask for it or acknowledge that she's lonely. She's a loner with no friends, not a {{Goth}} or {{Emo}} kid who dresses as a way of self-expression or identifying with people like her. Her makeover is partially about accepting affection and kindness from another person (the AlphaBitch Claire, in this case), and partially about openly acknowledging that she wants attention and human interaction by tucking back her hair and changing her concealing make-up and clothing. A lot of fans also miss that the pink clothes post-makeover was something Alison already owned and had on underneath (which was confirmed by the film's costume designer).

* Allison Reynolds, Creator/AllySheedy's character in ''Film/TheBreakfastClub'' has this happen to her. Many people just find her cuter as the "[[CloudCuckooLander Basket Case]]". It's one of the most famous examples in movies, [[MisaimedFandom but it's also a rather misunderstood element]] -- in the film, Allison is a closet AttentionWhore, whose behaviors and manner of dress is meant to draw attention to herself without having to ask for it or acknowledge that she's lonely. She's a loner with no friends, not a {{Goth}} or {{Emo}} kid who dresses as a way of self-expression or identifying with people like her. Her makeover is partially about accepting affection and kindness from another person (the AlphaBitch Claire, in this case), and partially about openly acknowledging that she wants attention and human interaction by tucking back her hair and changing her concealing make-up and clothing. A lot of fans also miss that the pink clothes post-makeover was something Alison already owned and had on underneath (which was confirmed by the film's costume designer).

* Gay.com:
** The now-defunct Gay.com once did a makeover special in collaboration with ''Out'' magazine. For one of the men featured, he was an average guy in flannel and was already attractive in his "before" pic. But in his "after" pic, he was dressed in pretentious [[TheFashionista fashionista]] clothing and his hair had about five gallons of product in it. His "before" was far more laid-back versus the CampGay ensemble in the "after."
** In another one of their BeforeAndAfterPictures advertisements, they showed a dietary pill advertisement, featuring a man that appeared to have a slight pouch but was still thin and reasonably handsome. The "after" picture made him look [[GymBunny ridiculously ripped]] with muscles everywhere. Not only did he look fine before, but the ad was misleading; diet pills only help you lose water weight, ''not'' turn you into Mr. Olympia.
* This trope is deconstructed in Dove's "Evolution" advert -- a "pretty, but ordinary" woman is shown going in for a fashion shoot. She is then spruced up with some makeup, removing her necklace, a new shirt, and brushing her hair to give it a flowing effect, which makes her look completely unrecognizable. However, the photo is then unnecessarily edited to thin out her neck and shoulders, stretch out her chin, straighten her eyebrows, pale her skin color, and make her eyes and nose larger, before revealing it's all for a foundation billboard.

* "Bimbofication" images often focus on taking a regular character and transforming them into a [[DumbBlonde blonde-haired,]] large-breasted nymphomaniac. A common complaint about them is that the characters themselves looked more appealing and unique beforehand, instead of just being a long-discredited stereotype.

** After [[spoiler:the five-year TimeSkip]], [[ComicBook/CarolDanvers Captain Marvel]] reappears with a [[BoyishShortHair much shorter]] hairstyle and bleached-blonde tips with dark roots. While it ''is'' [[MythologyGag accurate to the current comics run]], that hairstyle in the comics is itself [[BrokenBase fairly controversial]] among comic book fans, and as pretty an actress as Creator/BrieLarson is, the short hair does her jawline no favors. More than one person online has compared it to the infamous "[[MemeticMutation can I speak to your manager]]" [[MemeticHair hairstyle]].

* ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'' has quite a number of fans who prefer the Beast to the Prince. Even aside from the fact that the Beast's design is the one we've gotten to know for the whole film, the Prince's design looks rather off, in part because it's [[NonstandardCharacterDesign notably more realistic than the other faces in the film]] and therefore lacks a lot of the hunkiness of even, say, Gaston. Of course, in this case, the Prince is his true form and it's not necessarily treated as ''better''. Belle indeed looks unsure of this and it isn't until she sees that the eyes are the same that she's happy. Glen Keane anticipated this trope coming into play; he said in interviews that he and the film's other animators knew that viewers would be disappointed by the Beast they'd fallen in love with being replaced by a stranger no matter what the Prince looked like, so they didn't put as much effort into animating him as they did with the Beast. A deleted line would've had Belle jokingly ask him if he could grow a beard (which was restored in [[Film/BeautyAndTheBeast2017 the live-action remake]]).

* ComicBook/{{Vampirella}} infamously suffered one of these as her outfit began progressively skimpier under Harris Comics despite the fact she was already one of the most provocative and sensual heroines in comics. It got to the point her outfit's creator, Trina Robbins, called it "dental floss." Controversially, Dynamite has attempted to reverse the damage by actually putting her in a much more conservative training outfit and jacket.

* "Bimbofication" images often focus on taking a regular character and transforming them into a [[DumbBlonde blonde-haired,]] [[GagBoobs large-breasted]] nymphomaniac. A common complaint about them is that the characters themselves looked more appealing and unique beforehand, instead of just being a long-discredited stereotype.

** In another one of their BeforeAndAfterPictures advertisements, they showed a dietary pill advertisement, featuring a man that appeared to have a slight pouch but was still thin and reasonably handsome. The "after" picture made him look [[GymBunny ridiculously ripped]] with muscles everywhere. Not only did he look fine before, but the ad was misleading; diet pills only help you lose water weight, ''not'' turn you into Mr.Olympus.

* A curse in ''Series/TheTenthKingdom'' causes Virginia to suffer RapidHairGrowth. Wolf takes a magic ax to it...and cuts her hair completely short. It was shoulder length originally, but Wolf cuts it to a pixie length. For a few fans, this was just too drastic a change. Especially since Virginia was shown to be very unhappy with the result.

* While on the subject of WWE Divas, [[Wrestling/BellaTwins Nikki Bella]] got breast implants in 2012 because she was unhappy with her figure as she approached 30. Many fans are upset because she no longer looks like her twin sister Brie, and since most women in professional wrestling have breast implants, it was admirable that they did not have them. However, there are others who are fine with it for [[BuxomIsBetter obvious reasons]]. Nikki also opted to start weight training, developing a more muscular physique than Brie. This choice is divisive for [[NoGuyWantsAnAmazon two]] [[AmazonianBeauty conflicting]] reasons.

This often applies to real-life celebrities getting plastic surgery, with many fans saying they preferred the old face over the new one, especially if the celeb was already attractive to begin with. Whatever flaws they had --including aging -- simply made them look like a human being as opposed to an artificial doll of perfect beauty, which tends to [[UncannyValley make viewers uncomfortable]] more often than not. It can even affect their work if they get rid of whatever facial quirks made them so distinct in the first place, as Creator/JenniferGrey from ''Film/DirtyDancing'' found out the hard way. But since nothing is more subjective than beauty, Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease

* ''Film/Catwoman2004'' pretty infamously decided that ''Creator/HalleBerry'' of all people needed to be made over twice over. As her civilian identity Patience Phillips, she starts off as [[UnkemptBeauty endearingly messy and unkempt]], then gives herself a very 2000's-era short hairdo and [[UncannyValley overly-smoothing makeup]] (which was very clearly done in an attempt to make herself as {{ComicBook/Catwoman}} when she needs to be rendered in CGI seamless), which ''maybe'' could be excused given her [[CharacterDevelopment character evolution]] from a ShrinkingViolet to a more outwardly confident woman. Less excusable was what they did to her actual Catwoman outfit: her BetaOutfit of a black leather jacket, black pants and DominoMask -- even if she lacks her usual cat ears -- has been seen as a much more attractive and overall better adaptation than the infamously {{stripperiffic}} garb she ended up with, almost universally blasted for [[FetishRetardant trying too hard to be sexy]].

* ''VideoGame/TheSims'' games act as a storytelling medium as well as a video game. Anyone can send stories to the official website accompanied by images from the game. Many, many of these stories consist of the pre-made resident Sims getting makeovers. While some are fine, a lot are unnecessary. A lot of them feature the Sims being redesigned so as to lose their distinctive quirky appearances, often with an over-reliance on third-party downloadable content, especially those that can veer into UncannyValley territory.

* Crossing over with RealLife, [[Series/{{Mash}} Margaret Houlihan]] went from natural HospitalHottie to having her hair done in a fried perm, her lips bloated, a fake tan and lashings of eyeliner that stretched WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief massively. One wonders if viewers even liked it at the time, let alone now.

* ''Film/AvengersEndgame'' has a RareMaleExample right at the beginning of the movie, when Steve Rogers shaves off the ManlyFacialHair he grew in the [[Film/AvengersInfinityWar previous movie.]] The vast majority of fans thought Cap looked ''great'' with facial hair (albeit for very different reasons for [[RatedMForManly male fans]] and [[EstrogenBrigade female fans]]) and mourned its absence in ''Endgame''. In this case, it may have been necessary for plot-related, spoilery InUniverse reasons, to make it easier for Cap to [[spoiler:[[ItMakesSenseInContext impersonate his past self.]]]]

* In ''Webcomic/StickyDillyBuns'', Amber and Dillon helped Ruby prepare for her first date. Their efforts didn't improve much on her {{nerd}}y charm.

* Any male wrestler known for having long hair that gets it cut short can inspire this reaction. Wrestling/TheUndertaker is one such example. He has cut his hair short several times over his career (even sporting a mohawk during the early 2010s), but he has always grown it back out, likely because it's part of his trademark image. Wrestling/{{Edge}} also cut his hair short after retiring, but as of 2017 has grown it long again. Some wrestlers, such as Wrestling/DiamondDallasPage, Wrestling/{{Christian}} and Wrestling/TripleH, are agreed to look better with short hair than long hair.

* Debra Winger's character in ''A Dangerous Woman'' goes into a salon, and the stylist cuts off her long, wavy locks for a short, feathered haircut which may have looked good in the 80's, but really isn't so flattering now.

* Hilary "Larry" Friedman in ''Blended'' is cute/ pretty tomboy, who has a short, curly- bob haircut (similar to Molly Ringwald) and wears athletic clothing. As a result, many boys assume that she's a ButchLesbian. Her dad's girlfriend Lauren suggests that she change her hairstyle, and as a result, she gets a GirlinessUpgrade with long hair extensions and makeup for a boy to notice her, even though she was so much [[UnkemptBeauty cuter as a tomboy to begin with.]]