Joan Rivers Is Completely Unrecognizable In Throwback Photos From The '80s

Joan Rivers was never one to shy away from talking about plastic surgery, so maybe it shouldn't come as a surprise that she looks unrecognizable in throwback pictures from the 1980s. Nevertheless, we couldn't help but let out a gasp when we saw just how different she looked back then. 

Back in 2019, Joan's X, formerly known as Twitter, account shared a sweet picture of the "Fashion Police" star, all clad in blue and white florals. The snap had been sent by Joan's daughter Melissa Rivers, and that in itself feels pretty fitting. That's because, with the exception of the blond hair, the snap could easily have been of Melissa, herself — during a time when teased hair and pantyhose were the lewk du jour. After all, as the "Bold and the Beautiful" alum had shared with the team behind Joan's continued X presence, it was a very '80s look. 

In the spirit of Joan, we do have to say the comedian ended up looking much younger in the years after the pic had been taken. In fact, similar to how some celebs look like they haven't aged in 20 years, Joan actually seemed to have aged backwards. A lot of that is down to the fact that women in their 50s aren't styled to look like they're way older anymore (we've all seen the "Golden Girls" comparison). Plus, there's no substitute for good skincare. However, as Joan herself made a point of noting on many occasions, the fact that she was partial to getting a little work done was undoubtedly the reason for any differences in appearance — and she never hid that. 

Even saying Joan Rivers spoke openly about her plastic surgery would be an understatement. In addition to including it in her stand-up routines, she even wrote a book on the matter. In "Men are Stupid ... And They Like Big Boobs" (which is still available on Amazon to this day), Rivers sought to share as much information as she possibly could on as many procedures as she could, along with details would-be patients might want to know, like how much a nose job really costs. 

True to form, Rivers even personalized her book by including asterisks on the procedures she'd done, herself. Perhaps unsurprisingly, in an appearance on "The Graham Norton Show," the host paged through countless asterisk-marked procedures. "So basically the only thing you haven't had done, you haven't had hair removal," Norton surmised, before going into some of the more out-there procedures which Rivers had also foregone (at least at the time of her interview). 

It's worth noting that even before Rivers' unrecognizable 1980s pics were taken, the comedian had already gone under the knife. In fact, as she revealed in "Men are Stupid ... And They Like Big Boobs," she'd actually had an in-chair nose thinning while she was a college student. She also went on to have an eye lift in her 30s, a face lift in her 40s, and liposuction in the 1980s. With that in mind, one might say Rivers in the 1980s was already fairly unrecognizable from her original features. It's no surprise, then, that one of her most famous quotes is, "I wish I had a twin so I could know what I'd look like without plastic surgery" (via The Hollywood Reporter). Jokes aside, though, she had no regrets — and we're happy for her.