Ricki Lake felt “shame” amid her battle with hair loss.
Ricki Lake
The 52-year-old actress and filmmaker revealed just over a year ago that she had been silently suffering with hair loss for almost three decades, and has now said she didn’t open up about her battle sooner because she was “afraid” of what people might think.
She said: "I went back and forth about coming forward last year. It's such a shameful thing. I was afraid of coming out. Because no woman as far as I knew had ever gone public about female baldness."
Ricki said her hair loss started after she took on the role of Tracy Turnblad in the original 1988 ‘Hairspray’, where she had to tease and triple-process it every two weeks while filming.
And although she tried everything to make her hair stop falling out, she “decided to take charge” in December 2019, when she shaved her head.
She explained: "I decided to take charge. It wasn't a calculated move. I just needed to be set free from this silent suffering."
On New Year’s Day last year (01.01.20), Ricki opened up on social media about her hair loss, and has now said being honest about her journey has brought her closer to “self-confidence and self-love”.
She told People magazine: "It's about inner beauty, self-confidence and self-love. I truly appreciate what I see in the mirror now."
In Ricki’s original Instagram post, she revealed she had been “suffering in silence” for almost 30 years, before admitting she hadn’t even told her therapist of the “deep pain and trauma” she felt because of her hair loss.
She wrote in part of a lengthy post: “I am not having a mid-life crisis. nor am I having a mental breakdown, though I have been suffering. Suffering mostly in silence off and on for almost 30 years. AND I am finally ready to share my secret.
“I have been struggling with hair loss for most of my adult life. It has been debilitating, embarrassing, painful, scary, depressing, lonely, all the things. There have been a few times where I have even felt suicidal over it. Almost no one in my life knew the level of deep pain and trauma I was experiencing. Not even my therapist/s over the years knew my truth. (sic)”
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