Jada Pinkett Smith’s Hair Loss Journey With Alopecia—What She’s Said About Her Diagnosis
The actress has said that letting go of her hair helped her learn about beauty from within
Hair loss is such a common experience that many people go through, but it can seem like it hits us out of nowhere. There are many different forms of hair loss, including genetic hair loss, a.k.a. androgenetic alopecia, hair thinning due to fluctuating hormones such as during menopause and hair loss due to excessive heat, coloring and styling, as well as many other forms. Many of your favorite celebrities have even openly struggled with hair thinning. Jada Pinkett Smith is one of those celebrities who has been candid about her sudden hair loss journey.
This sudden onset of alopecia, the broad medical term for hair loss, is what happened to celebrity and actress Jada Pinkett Smith, 53, back in 2018. The star has been public about her alopecia battle, sharing on her Facebook show, Instagram and in interviews. Here, a look at Jada Pinkett Smith’s hair loss journey and how she’s responded to her alopecia diagnosis.
About Jada Pinkett Smith’s alopecia journey
In 2018, Jada Pinkett Smith, actress and host, took to her now-canceled Facebook show Red Table Talk, where she hosted conversations with family, friends and other guests, to share her struggle with hair loss.
After saying she was getting many questions regarding why she had been wearing a turban often, she shared she had been dealing with hair loss. “And I’ll tell you, it was terrifying when it first started. I was in the shower one day and then just handfuls of hair just in my hands, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, am I going bald?’ It was one of those times in my life when I was literally shaking with fear,” she said.
This sudden, drastic hair loss is called alopecia, a broad umbrella term for many different types of hair loss, including alopecia areata and androgenetic alopecia. Pinkett Smith has alopecia areata, which is an autoimmune condition that attacks the hair follicles.
What is alopecia areata?
“Alopecia areata, a specific form of alopecia, is an autoimmune condition that requires diagnosis from your medical practitioner. While the exact cause remains unclear, it is known that the immune system mistakenly targets hair follicles,” explains trichologist and founder of Colour Collective Kerry Yates. “The good news? Some treatments have shown promising results in managing and alleviating this condition!”
Since her initial conversation announcing her hair loss, Pinkett Smith has shared a few updates. She’s posted multiple times on Instagram sharing snippets of her journey with alopecia, including when she shaved her head, a scar that formed on her scalp and an update in 2023 of her hair growth.
In an interview with The Guardian in 2023, Pinkett Smith said her alopecia diagnosis has taught her “a lot about detachment.” She went on to say, “And I learned a deeper beauty within myself, being able to let my hair go.” She also says it has been “A great teacher. It’s been a hard one, a scary one, because specifically as Black women, we identify so much of ourselves with our hair. And it was scary. I had to really dig deep and see the beauty of myself beyond my aesthetics.”
Jada Pinkett Smith’s most recent alopecia update
Her most recent update on her alopecia was in 2023, as aforementioned, in which she shared two selfies on Instagram in a before-and-after format. The first picture showed her shaved head, which she said was the past, and the second slide showed her hair growth, which she said was the present.
The caption wrote, “This here hair is act’n like it’s try’n a make a come back. Still have some trouble spots but—we’ll see✨ Slide 1: Past. Slide 2: Present.”
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