Melissa Gilbert was 10 when she started out, like in the whole industry, when she came out through Little House on the Prairie. She’s now in her 50s, and like many of her era, plastic surgery has not evaded her either. In fact, you could see the result of such an ordeal on her face in all these years.
Since the mid-2010s, there’s been a little change in her, hasn’t it? Of course, she was sick of those ordeals and chose to give it all up. She had enormous support from her husband after all.
It’s a brave step for a celebrity to defy the norms that have forced her to go out of her way, even if the decision came about years, if not decades, after her first plastic surgery. All her insecurities and concerning health issues were zeroed down with that.
Origin Story: Why Melissa Gilbert Opted for Plastic Surgery in the First Place
The story goes way back to her time on Little House on the Prairie. Even back then, it was a well-versed fact that if actors in the industry had to resort to plastic surgery to keep them the way it is desired for ideal actors. She was also plagued with the idea of such a need for herself.
Winding down time with plastic surgery.
Photo Credit: SGranitz, WireImage
However, Little House on the Prairie wasn’t a set that demanded it. In fact, everyone involved was supportive of her natural features. But it was outside the legendary show that she had trouble. During the later years of the show, she was branching out to adult roles, and there was a sudden push for her to go do something to her body to fit the invisibly set standards.
“I look at my body then and I think, woo-hoo! … I was a strong young woman,” she told TODAY. “But it wasn’t good enough and I wasn’t curvy enough and I think that really messed with my head.”
“They were trying to make me appear what the image of the glamorous leading lady ingénue was at that time,” she continued. She was 17 when she was got her first treatment, and she “fell right into that trap”. She got a nose job and multiple breast implant surgeries as well. As she got older, Botox came to be an obvious use.
‘Dancing with the Stars’ and Future Perspective of the Implants Made Her Stop Altogether
Back in 2012, Gilbert was participating in Dancing with the Stars, and that’s when all these insecurities about plastic surgery came about playing in her mind. She was not happy about her looks. She had to dance, and it got her thinking about her shape years later, some more decades after then, because the show “was the peak of Botox, fillers, spray tan, hair extensions, big boobs. That was the epitome of all the stuff I’m the opposite of at this point.”
She had some things to think about after the competition.
Photo Credit: Adam Taylor, Walt Disney Television
“I just had to sit back and reevaluate and find my way, and I’m actually really glad that I did,” she told People last year. “I feel healthier than I ever have, physically and emotionally. I’m stronger.”
“What am I going to do when I’m in my 80s and I have to have a hip replacement but I also have my breast implants replaced?” She continued. “Because it’s inevitable, they have a life span. So I wanted them out.”
After making “one of the smartest things I’ve ever done”, i.e., removing breast implants in 2015, she stopped using Botox, fillers and even stopped dying her hair. But, of course, her nose job was permanent. So, nothing to do there. But yeah, she did not have any plastic surgery so forth.
Husband Timothy Busfield Also Had a Huge Part in Her Resilience for Plastic Surgery
Yes, it was not an easy thing to let go of despite her perspective on age changing with falling in love with husband Timothy Busfield. But his influence got her to completely stop it and be who she is now.
“Through his inspiration I found the courage to just be me.” And she was then going to “age gracefully and appropriately and let my body and my face become whatever they are going to become.”
Plastic surgery-free and taking life with the pace it goes.
Photo Credit: Lars Niki, Getty Images for BAM
Botox was particularly hard to let go. “A couple of years ago I decided that I would try to sneak in a tiny bit of Botox to see if Tim noticed,” she continued to People. “He was away on location and I went to go visit him, and the first thing he said to me was, ‘What did you do?’ And he said, ‘I can’t read your expressions. I don’t know what you’re feeling.’ And he was right.”
For now, she says she looks great for her age and feels great and happy (ignoring her character’s personality on The Big Bang Theory). “I went down the road that everyone else does—nose job, boob job, fillers and Botox, but no more!” She said in her reveal story with First For Women. “I had my breast implants removed and I’m no longer doing fillers or Botox because I’m a 53-year-old woman and I’m trying to embrace this process of aging.”
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