Pamela Anderson Once Inspired Drew Barrymore To Ditch Her Hair Extensions On-Air

For much of the 1990s, Pamela Anderson embodied and defined beauty ideals. The world fell for her smoky eyes, peroxide hair, bombshell blowouts, glossy lips, and her Playboy curves — made doubly irresistible to the male gaze alongside her paradoxically sugarcoated girl-next-door demeanor. Her signature tousled updos channelled Brigitte Bardot meets Malibu Barbie, spawning an army of admirers keen to learn how to recreate Pamela Anderson's iconic messy bun. Gen Z would eventually rediscover her pre-social media glam and would later resurrect the look as a TikTok trend.

Then something shifted. Pamela Anderson's style transformation has been a sight to see, but somewhere along the way, the performance began to wear thin for the "Baywatch" star. In 2023, at Paris Fashion Week, Anderson stepped out without a trace of makeup. The next day, she did the same for Isabel Marant. Then came Vivienne Westwood, and then Victoria Beckham. In each case, the clothes remained impeccable, and the face was bare. Was she letting go of her old contract between beauty and performance?

It was this version of Anderson that walked onto "The Drew Barrymore Show" makeup-free, and hair pulled back into a modest low bun. Midway through their conversation, Barrymore began pulling out her extensions on camera. "One of the really awesome symptoms of perimenopause," she joked, "is you start to lose your hair." The audience cheered. Anderson, smiling softly, declared, "You don't need that." No makeover required.

Hailed among older celebs that aren't playing by society's beauty rules, Pamela Anderson used her appearance on "The Drew Barrymore Show" to advocate for self-acceptance. Joined by Drew Barrymore and guest regular Valerie Bertinelli — both of whom embraced the makeup-free moment in solidarity — Anderson asked, "Isn't it freeing? Doesn't it feel free?" She spoke candidly about decades spent performing different versions of herself — Playmate, pin-up, rockstar belle — roles she now admits were carefully constructed. "I feel great as me," she told the audience. "I don't want people to think of me as all those cartoon characters I kind of created for protection."

In a summer 2025 interview with Harper's Bazaar, Anderson sharpened the cultural critique. "I think with AI technology and filters, people are becoming kind of boring-looking," she said. "I want to challenge beauty norms. I've always been a rebel." She's in good company. Alicia Keys posed without makeup for an album cover. "I was taking on these tremendously oppressive beauty standards that I thought somehow applied to me," she later explained to Women's Wear Daily, "And I obviously rebelled against that." Amy Adams described a similar epiphany, though prompted by something more domestic. In an interview with People, she recalled her daughter asking her to go without makeup: "I just want you to look like Mom, not like Amy Adams."

Once the pinnacle of manufactured sex appeal, the newly unfiltered Anderson continues to walk away from spectacle, and her power feels all the more enduring for it. As she conclusively mused to Barrymore, "This is the best time in my life. I feel so empowered and so free and so excited about life again." The woman, over the fantasy, is more than enough.