A couple of months ago, Evangeline Lilly shaved her head. She didn’t specify why, but I suspect she was going through some challenges in life and found it freeing. She looked amazing with a buzzed head, and that’s the case for Ricki Lake too. Ricki posted a message to Instagram and Facebook saying that she’s been losing her Hair for 30 years and that she’s sick of being stuck in a maintenance cycle of getting her extensions and hair dyed every two weeks. She shaved her head and made it clear that she’s not sick and is just doing it to stop having to maintain her hair. She posted the photo above to Instagram of her buzzed head and she wrote a little more on Facebook about her decision.
In my case, I believe my hair loss was due to many factors, yo-yo dieting, hormonal birth control, radical weight fluctuations over the years, my pregnancies, genetics, stress, and hair dyes and extensions. Working as talent on various shows and movies, whether DWTS or my talk show, also took its toll on my fine hair.
I got used to wearing extensions, really just over the last decade. All different kinds, tried them all, the ones that are glued on, the tape-ins, the clip ins, and then into a total hair system that I hated, and finally to a unique solution that really did work pretty well for me for the last 4 or 5 years. I tried wigs on a few occasions but never could get used to them. It all felt fake and I was super self-conscious and uncomfortable.
I’ve been to many doctors, gotten steroid shots in my head, taking all the supplements and then some. My hair would recover and then shed again. It was maddening.
So of late, after 2 months of bliss ‘working’ in London and after my last extreme diet where I lost 20 lbs in 6 weeks, my hair started shedding again, big time.
This time, I say no more. I have to be set free.
Free of the maintenance every 10-12 days, where my added hair would need to be tightened (sometimes painfully) and my gray hair would need to be colored. I felt like I was a slave to this maintenance schedule. I wouldn’t go out of town longer than 12 days, because of this. I even brought my hair fairy and dear friend, to London during my stint there to do what she needed to do to keep it on my head…
I am liberated.
I am free.
I am releasing and letting go.
I am brave.
I am beautiful
I am love.
[From Facebook]
I’ve been losing hair recently and have been looking at wigs. I think it’s menopause-related, but it also coincided with taking progesterone so I’ve stopped that. I’ve been using powder on my scalp when needed to hide it. I found an Instagram account of a woman with hair loss who shows her amazing wigs and you can’t tell they’re not real hair except for the fact that they’re so long and full. I love my hair and it’s a kind of security blanket for me so I’m going to hang on to it for awhile and if it doesn’t last I’ll try a nice wig. It sounds like Ricki was well past that point though, which I totally understand. I bought a Dyson airwrap as a present for myself and my hair is so gorgeous and full-looking, with so little damage, that I’m not stressing about it as much anymore. That thing was a fortune though! Plus I am trying to only wash it every other day and to use all-natural products. Biotin has helped, as I mentioned in the most recent Amazon post. (I’m noticing some breakouts from it so I’m going to cut down a little.) Anyway Ricki is a badass. I still remember watching her show in high school and how much fun she was. I hope she’s doing well and it looks like she is. That’s the way to make a change when you’re going through something, just lean into it and own it.
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