For more than three decades, Lisa Rinna has possessed two physical trademarks so recognizable that she has joked they developed careers of their own.
There was the short, layered brunette hairstyle she wore through Days of Our Lives, Melrose Place and eventually The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
And then there were the lips.
So when Rinna arrived at the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards on September 27, she looked almost startlingly different. Gone was the familiar brunette shag. In its place was slicked-back platinum-blonde hair that appeared nearly white beneath the red-carpet lights. InStyle
At 63, Rinna had reinvented herself again.
But while the hair transformation was impossible to overlook, photographs also reignited a conversation that has followed her since long before reality television: what happened to Lisa Rinna’s famous lips?
This was surprisingly Lisa Rinna’s first VMA red carpet
Considering how long Rinna has been a fixture of American pop culture, one detail about Sunday’s appearance was unexpected.
It was her first time attending the VMAs.
She arrived at Los Angeles’ Peacock Theater in an extraordinary sculpted white ensemble that was almost as dramatic as her new hair. The dress featured a molded corset, draped skirt and thigh-high slit, creating an optical-illusion effect against her body. Women’s Wear Daily
White platform heels and diamond earrings completed the look.
But from the shoulders upward, Rinna looked particularly transformed.
Her hair was bleached platinum and swept tightly away from her face, eliminating the voluminous brunette layers that framed her features for so many years. The styling left her face completely exposed to the cameras.
And naturally, viewers looked closely.
Her lips have been famous almost as long as she has
Rinna has never pretended that her trademark pout happened entirely naturally.
In fact, she has told the story repeatedly.
When she was 24, Rinna and a girlfriend decided to have their upper lips injected with silicone after being inspired by actress Barbara Hershey’s appearance in the film Beaches.
Rinna later described it as an impulsive decision she made when she was young.
Unlike temporary modern fillers, however, the silicone was permanent. The Standard
Initially, Rinna loved the result.
For years, those full lips became part of her unmistakable appearance as her acting career took off.
Then things began to change.
The silicone eventually caused problems
Rinna has explained that scar tissue gradually developed around the silicone.
Her upper lip became increasingly hard and uneven.
By 2010, she had reached the point where she wanted something done about it — not because she suddenly wanted thin lips, but because she felt the old silicone injections were beginning to define her more than her work did. CBS News
That year, Rinna underwent lip-reduction surgery.
A surgeon removed as much of the silicone and affected tissue as possible and reshaped her upper lip. Rinna later said the procedure left it smoother and removed the lumps that had bothered her. CBS News
So when viewers today ask whether Rinna ever “got rid” of her famous lips, the real story is more complicated.
She actually did undergo surgery to reduce them.
She says some effects remain
Years later, Rinna offered an unusually candid update.
She explained in 2023 that surgeons had removed as much silicone as possible, but that some scar tissue remained. She nevertheless said she was happy with how her lips looked. Air Mail
And rather than running away from the feature that generated endless jokes and headlines, she eventually embraced it.
“My lips have had their own career,” she joked.
It’s difficult to argue with her.
They were discussed when she played Billie Reed on Days of Our Lives. They followed her through Melrose Place. And when she joined The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills in 2014, a whole new generation became familiar with them.
The platinum hair makes her face look dramatically different
There is another reason Sunday’s photographs created such a dramatic impression.
Hair can completely change the way a face is perceived.
For decades, Rinna’s signature shag added volume around her forehead, temples and jaw. The dark color also created strong contrast against her skin.
At the VMAs, almost all of that disappeared.
Her extremely light hair was pulled backward, revealing her forehead and placing much greater emphasis on her eyes, cheekbones and mouth.
The effect was striking enough that some viewers described the overall appearance as unexpectedly natural, while others barely recognized her at first glance.
Those reactions are subjective, of course. But the physical change in styling was very real.
And platinum isn’t completely new for Lisa anymore
Sunday’s transformation didn’t appear out of nowhere.
Rinna has become increasingly adventurous with her hair since leaving The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
The woman who once kept essentially the same signature haircut for decades has suddenly treated hairstyles almost like accessories.
In May, she appeared at the Cannes amfAR Gala with dramatically teased platinum-blonde hair, creating another striking departure from her familiar brunette appearance. Page Six
She also appeared with a short curly blonde transformation at another red-carpet event earlier this year. E! Online
Throughout 2025, she experimented with everything from severe black bobs to white and purple sculptural hairstyles. Women’s Wear Daily
The 2026 VMAs simply brought that experimentation to one of entertainment’s most photographed carpets.
Her transformation goes far beyond one hairstyle
Look back at Rinna’s earliest photographs and the evolution becomes remarkable.
In the 1990s, she was a young soap actress with fuller brunette hair and the exaggerated upper lip that would eventually become her trademark.
By the Melrose Place years, the short layered hairstyle had arrived.
Then came decades of variations on essentially the same look.
That consistency is exactly why her recent transformations feel so dramatic.
At 63, she seems more interested in experimenting than looking familiar
Rinna’s post-Housewives fashion era has arguably been one of the most adventurous periods of her public life.
Rather than preserving the look people already recognize, she has repeatedly dismantled it.
She has appeared with wigs, bleached brows, sculptural hairstyles and radically different silhouettes.
Sunday night’s VMAs outfit followed exactly that philosophy.
Even reactions to the molded white dress were sharply divided. Some social-media users praised the daring look, while others disliked the sculptural design. Tyla
Rinna, meanwhile, appeared entirely comfortable attracting attention.
That has arguably been one of the most consistent things about her career.
The before-and-after photographs tell the story best
Place a photograph of Rinna at 30 beside one taken at Sunday’s VMAs and there is obviously an enormous difference.
More than three decades have passed.
Her hair has changed.
Her styling has changed.
And yes, her lips have changed too.
But in this case, we don’t need to speculate about at least part of the transformation because Rinna herself has explained it.
She had permanent silicone placed in her upper lip at 24. Over time, scar tissue developed. In 2010, she underwent surgery to remove as much of it as doctors could and reduce the lip. Some scar tissue remained. CBS News
That’s the documented history behind the famous pout.
The RARE PHOTOS spanning her soap-opera beginnings through her platinum-haired appearance at 63 reveal something else, too.
Lisa Rinna spent decades being instantly identifiable because she rarely abandoned the hairstyle and lips that became her trademarks.
Now, at an age when Hollywood often expects women to cling tightly to the image that made them famous, Rinna seems determined to do precisely the opposite.
And on her first-ever VMAs red carpet, one radically different hairstyle was enough to make people look twice.
If you’re curious about other stars making headlines with their looks, find out why Kathie Lee Gifford, 72, Turns Heads With Her Ageless Appearance and the surprising story behind Madonna’s Daring Leg-Baring Look at 68.
