"It Was Something That Consumed My Life": 13 Famous Women Who've Opened Up About Hair Loss

1.Viola Davis was 28 when she experienced hair loss due to alopecia. During a 2014 interview with Vulture, she said, "I woke up one day, and it looked like I had a mohawk. Big splash of bald on the top of my head. I was like, 'What is this?' Until I found out it was stress-related."

She wore wigs exclusively for years until debuting her natural hair at the 2012 Oscars. "My favorite saying in the world is: 'The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.' I am telling you, I have spent so much of my life not feeling comfortable in my skin. I am just so not there anymore."

2.Earlier this year, Lili Reinhart made a TikTok video announcing she "was just diagnosed with alopecia in the midst of a major depressive episode."

In the caption, she wrote, "Red light therapy is my new best friend #alopecia #mentalhealth."

3.On a 2018 episode of Red Table Talk, Jada Pinkett Smith opened up about her experience with alopecia. "I was in the shower one day and had just handfuls of hair in my hands, and I was just like, 'Oh my god, am I going bald?' It was one of those times in my life where I was literally shaking in fear."

Over the years, the actor has been candid about her journey on social media. In 2021, she shared an Instagram video, saying, "Just all of a sudden one day, look at this line right here. Look at that." Jada said it would be "a little bit more difficult" to hide, but in the caption, she joked, "Me and this alopecia are going to be friends … period!??."

4.In a 2016 interview with InStyle UK, Kiera Knightley said she'd been wearing wigs for the past five years. "I have dyed my hair virtually every color imaginable for different films. It got so bad that my hair literally began to fall out of my head!" She called wigs the "greatest thing that’s ever happened" to her hair.

5.Tyra Banks spent five years working on a young adult book titled Modelland. While writing, she juggled a busy schedule and overworked herself. "How can I say this without tearing up?" she asked during a 2011 interview with the Wall Street Journal. "I got a little alopecia from the stress."

6.In a powerful 2020 Instagram post, Ricki Lake shared pictures of herself with a bald head. In the caption, the actor wrote that she had dealt with hair loss for the majority of her adult life and hid it from the people closest to her, even her therapist. "It has been debilitating, embarrassing, painful, scary, depressing, lonely, all the things," she said. "I know that by sharing my truth, I will be striking a chord with so so many women and men. I am not alone in this and my goal is to help others while at the same time unshackle myself from this quiet hell I have been living in."

On a 2021 episode of The Drew Barrymore Show, Ricki said, "Every part of my life has improved since kind of shedding this pain, this suffering that I was going through. People that don't go through hair loss, they can't really relate. They don't understand, but it was a big deal. It was something that consumed my life."

7.In a 2021 interview with Refinery29, Khloé Kardashian recalled experiencing hair loss during the pandemic. "When I got COVID, I actually lost a great deal of my hair. It happened in chunks, and it was like two or three weeks after I had COVID. I was really bummed — you don't feel good about yourself."

8.In a 2021 interview with People, Christina Milian shared that her hair fell out in clumps after she gave birth to her first two children. "Emotionally, there is a huge drop in confidence," she said. "It's a really disheartening experience. I had times where I wanted to cry because I wasn't sure if I'd ever have my hair grow back again."

The singer recalled driving around and looking for billboards about hair loss. "I'd look for doctor billboards and infomercials. I was checking everything out. It was a panic within me."

9.In 2020, Lea Michele welcomed her first child, son Ever Leo.

In a January 2021 Instagram Story, the actor shared a picture of hair sitting in her hand. "The postpartum hair loss is REAL," she wrote.

10.In a 2017 interview with WWD, Kristin Davis shared her hair journey after giving birth to her daughter. "My hair just was not what it used to be. It was very fine, like it had gone away, there just was hardly any hair there."

She recalled not worrying about it much as she had her daughter, but when she wanted to go out, she would ask, "Where is my hair?"

11.Rosie O'Donnell

In 2016, the comedian shared a selfie on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. "male pattern baldness ... aging is fun," she wrote.

Rosie O'Donnell / Twitter: @Rosie

12.After a long modeling career that was rough on her natural curls, Naomi Campbell experienced hair loss. "I do take more care of my hair now, because I lost all of it with extensions," she said during a 2017 interview with ES Magazine. "I am more careful and I do different things."

13.And finally, Gail Porter's hair started falling out in about a year and a half after she gave birth to her daughter, Honey. While filming a project in the US, she noticed hair clumps around the shower drain. During a 2018 interview with BBC, she said, "I looked in the mirror and literally half my hair had just come out for no reason... The whole thing took just three to four weeks. I went to America, left my daughter with my ex-husband and came back completely bald."

She worried most about what her daughter would think when she returned home, but her daughter simply said, "Rock and roll." Gail continued, "So I just didn't care what anyone else thought. And since then, for her, it's normal, and I think without her positivity, I don't know where I would have been. I just thought there are so many worse things in the world. I've lost my hair, but my daughter loves me, end of story."

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