Mina Starsiak Hawk Gets Real About Plastic Surgery Stigma

Mina Starsiak Hawk has been candid about undergoing a “mommy makeover,” but now the HGTV host is going a step further and sharing the details of her plastic surgery experience on her podcast, “Mina AF.” She welcomed her surgeon, Dr. Peter Koltz, to the February 6, 2023, episode, “Let’s Talk Plastic Surgery.”

The “Good Bones” star went under the knife after giving birth to her son Jack, 4, and daughter Charlotte, 2, with her husband Steve Hawk. She admitted on the podcast that she thought about getting plastic surgery “for a long time” before going through with it.

“It’s challenging because it’s socially acceptable to, like, embrace your mom body,” Starsiak Hawk explained in the episode. “And embrace the stretch marks and embrace all the cool s*** our bodies can do to make children.”

Starsiak Hawk said while she thinks it is “incredible” that some women can celebrate their postpartum body, she did not feel like herself after giving birth.

“I just felt like I was wearing a suit, wearing someone else’s body and it didn’t feel like me,” the 35-year-old added. “A big part of it, too, was, I was never going to be able to have a strong abdominal section again, I had a huge gap. It just wasn’t going to be a thing I could do on my own.”

Starsiak Hawk explained on the podcast that she underwent a breast augmentation, tummy tuck, liposuction “in a lot of little small spots,” and had fat transplanted into her “butt den.”

In a February 2021 interview with Us Weekly, Starsiak Hawk shared “before and after” pics of her body after her plastic surgery makeover and defended her decision to go under the knife.

“Do what makes YOU feel good. It’s ok to be selfish sometimes,” Starsiak Hawk told the outlet. “Whether it’s surgery or a push-up bra or eyelash extensions, Spanx, a spray tan — get it. Whatever makes you feel strong and powerful and beautiful.”

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Mina Starsiak Hawk Feels Like Her ‘Genuine Self’ After Surgery Despite Criticism

The “Rock the Block” alum said she feels like her “genuine self” after the surgery but added she faced a “lot of judgment.”

“I got very mixed feedback. I got some women saying ‘I’m really disappointed. I thought you were a great role model for my daughter and you’re not,’” Starsiak Hawk explained on “Mina AF.” But while the criticism hurt, she said she felt a duty as a public figure to be open about her plastic surgery.

“I definitely didn’t want to be one of those people that all of a sudden, I’m on the beach with my family and I look the way I look,” she said. “And people are like, ‘Well, s***. I’m just not working out enough. I’m not eating good enough. I’m not whatever, blank, fill-in-the-blank enough. Because she has two kids, and she looks like that.’”

Starsiak Hawk added that while some fans frowned upon her decision to have surgery, others thanked her for her candor on “such a taboo issue.”

“I think particularly for women, we have to feel like we struggled for it,” the former “Battle on the Beach” judge explained.

“Plastic surgery sounds ugly and aggressive,” she continued. “But if you call it a ‘mommy makeover’ then it’s like I did this hard thing, so I deserve to be able to do this. I birthed a child. I was a mother. Like, I suffered, so I can do this thing for myself.”

Starsiak Hawk confessed that she keeps “going back and forth” about using the term “mommy makeover.”

“It’s a mommy makeover but you don’t have to have been a mom to do [the surgery] and you can still deserve to do that for yourself if you want,” she said.

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Mina Starsiak Hawk’s Husband Steve Has Always Found Her Body ‘Banging’

Starsiak Hawk acknowledged on “Mina AF” that plastic surgery decisions often involve the feelings and influence of a significant other, but that her husband, Steve, was supportive throughout the process.

“Steve thought I was banging when he met me, before I had Jack, when I was pregnant. Like, no matter what I’ve done, he’s all about it,” Starsiak Hawk said on the podcast. “And I think a lot of people don’t have that partner.”

Describing herself as “lucky,” she said her husband was “the last person to say I should look or do anything different.”

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Studies Show Plastic Surgery Often Improves Happiness & Self-Esteem

Starsiak Hawk’s positive feelings about her body post-surgery are not unusual, according to several psychological studies. In fact, a 2013 study published by Ruhr-University Bochum reported “positive outcomes” from people who received cosmetic surgery “across areas, including anxiety, social phobia, depression, body dysmorphia, goal attainment, quality of life, life satisfaction, attractiveness, mental and physical health, well-being, self-efficacy and self-esteem.”

But the social stigma associated with plastic surgery initially left Starsiak Hawk feeling “guilty” about her decision to turn to a plastic surgeon for help.

“I was very hard on myself for wanting to do this, because it’s super selfish,” Starsiak Hawk told People magazine in January 2021. “It’s like this mom-guilt that everyone else needs to be taken care of except you.”

Starsiak Hawk also told People she felt “better about myself” since undergoing the surgery, describing the improvement to her self-image as “huge.”

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