Jada Pinkett Smith Gets Honest About Losing Her Hair: 'It's Not Easy to Talk About'

Jada Pinkett Smith loves the way she looks in a head wrap, but the actress revealed she doesn’t just wear them as a fashion statement.

“A lot of people have been asking why I’ve been wearing turbans,” Pinkett Smith, 46, said on the latest episode of her Facebook Watch show Red Table Talk. “Well, I haven’t talked about it. It’s not easy to talk about, but I am going to talk about it.”

For the first time, she opened up about her “issues with hair loss,” explaining, “It was terrifying when it first started. 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. That’s why I cut my hair, and why I continue to cut it,” she added.

The actress debuted a new asymmetrical bob at the beginning of the year and has kept her hair short since.

“My hair has been a big part of me,” Pinkett Smith continued. “Taking care of my hair has been a beautiful ritual and having the choice to have hair or not. And then one day to be like, ‘Oh my god, I might not have that choice anymore.’ ”

Despite consulting with numerous experts, the actress has not gotten any closer to finding the source of the hair loss. “I’ve gotten every kind of test there is to have,” she explained. “They don’t know why.”

She added that people, including her mom Adrienne Banfield-Jones, have suggested the problem could be stress, while others have suggested its a result of alopecia, a skin disease that causes hair loss.

Although she was initially “terrified” to lose her hair, Pinkett Smith said she tried to put the problem in perspective. “I really had to put it into a spiritual perspective, like the higher power takes so much from people. People are out here with cancer. People have sick children. I watch the higher power take things every day,” she explained. Looking at it from that context “really did settle me,” she added.

Fortunately, Pinkett Smith said she likes the way she looks with a hair wrap. “When my hair is wrapped I feel like a queen,” she explained. “I love having a wrapped head.”

The star’s husband Will Smith voiced his strong support of the short haircut when Pinkett Smith first debuted the look. “I love her new haircut, I had to show y’all,” he captioned an Instagram video at the time.