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.
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.
photos credit: Getty and via Instagram and Facebook
My hair is my security blanket too. I feel for you and Ricki and I’m sorry it’s happening. I’m glad you have been able to find ways to mitigate your hair loss.
I can’t imagine doing it but I get it.. I have been wearing my hair long for maybe 10 years. Had a disastrous cut with thick short layers and then the fix-it stylist took off five inches to fix it. Very freeing to go from long hair to medium length hair with good layers. I may keep it this length..
I think she looks great w/ her shaved head; she has lovely features. Gosh, I was traumatized by getting a shagged bob; I hated it and felt awful . Hair can really affect a gal’s self image, right? Best wishes to Ricki in 2020; I think she’s super brave and self-empowered!
She looks Soo much better without the hair. Beautiful bone structure too
She looks good. I’m surprised she just didn’t go for a pixie cut or something earlier, if her hair was so difficult
loved The Ricky Lake Show! woman is a barrel of laughs
I always had an amazing head of hair, so thick that when I made a pony tail it was as thick as my wrist. Now, after going through menopause, and (in the last (almost) 6 yrs) leukemia/chemo and more chemo/stem cell transplant, what came back of my hair is about the thickness as a finger, and NO body anymore. I’m especially thinning radically in the front and through the crown. It’s beyond distressing.
When I went off the last chemo med. at the end of June, I thought for sure my hair would start to come back… no such luck. I use root lifters, volumizer shampoos/conditioners.. nope. I’ve tried Joan Rivers’ hair/scalp powder to camouflage the root area, and while it’s messy, it’s hard to find a shade that works with dark hair that is going gray (dark is too dark, and gray is too light lol). I can’t find the right “Toppix” shade, and that is SO messy, too boot. Sigh… To me, the buzz cut equates with being sick and hair falling out from the chemo. How many of us can look at a woman with a shaved head and not have our thoughts go there?
My hair, along with my eyes, has always been *my* best feature(s). And yes, we *do* equate it with femininity. Bald men are more accepted; bald women…yeah, not so much. Wigs… still have to take them off and be bald(ing) underneath. UUUGGHHH! (sorry for the vent).
I’m sorry for all you’ve been through, but very happy you’re here. 🙂
Thank you, pamspam! That is so kind of you…Hugs! ❤️
She’s had enough and can pull off this look. Maybe if she wore it just a tiny bit longer and call it a day. One of the reasons I quit dying my hair was because it was thinning and I could see my scalp…I’d also had enough of the time and expense involved in salon visits, along with the latest new study linking hair dye to breast cancer. I like being gray and my hair has gotten thicker from not being tormented with chemicals over the last couple of decades.
Ricki is so beautiful, with or without long hair. I would love to shave my head just because I am so tired of messing with it. It seems like it would be so freeing. But, alas, I don’t have the bone structure for that look.
CB, if this gives you any hope my hair got thin when I started menopause but only for the first 2 years. When my other menopauseal symptoms stopped (hot flashes, anxiety, weight gain) my hair also started to get thicker again. It’s back to normal now.
Hair loss is also a symptom of thyroid deficiency (and anemia), which is pretty under-diagnosed in young women and if you haven’t had a baby. Especially if you don’t present with other symptoms like weight gain or depression, you have to ask your doc pretty specifically for the blood test, but I recommend doing it. I was diagnosed almost by accident when I was 30 and I’m grateful every day.
I shaved my head in May of 2018. I was growing out my hair and transitioning to natural hair from chemically processed and it was EXHAUSTING and time consuming. I had already been wearing wigs because I was avoiding having to style my hair everyday (which is hard when your hair is essentially two different textures). And so I shaved it. And continued wearing wigs to work and wore my shaved head on the weekends. I loved it. My hair is now grown out quite a bit. I have a decent sized afro when I unbraid my hair. I still wear wigs to protect my own hair but I genuinely miss having a shaved head. Im planning on cutting it again. Not fully shaved but short and easier to manage.
I feel like I was reading my own story just then! Haha
I also shaved my hair after having many different colours in it. I already had a pretty high undercut, so when my last dye job turned out horribly, I just said eff it! And shaved it all!
Honestly I know how you feel. I miss my shaved head too! It felt so nice!! and apparently I got the face for it (never thought I did) because that was 3 years ago and people still mention how well it suited me. I think a shaved head probably suits a lot of women and they just think it won’t cause we tie so much of our perception of beauty to whatever our hair situation is.
I know I will do it again in the future, but rn a shaved head does get kind of boring, i like changing up the looks, but someday.
I think a shaved head really makes you appreciate your features, they stand out more and for me it made me feel like I was actually beautiful for the first time ever. So at least I learned to take some of that confidence from thereon.
I think Ricki looks great in that cut. Really! I know I wouldn’t look as good as she does.
I was loosing big chunks of hair at the front of my scalp a few years ago from psoriasis. I wasn’t all that upset about it at the time but ever since I’ve been taking good care of my hair and I think it would bother me now. Even with that ordeal I would never shave my head. My hair is very much a security blanket for me even though I wear it up most of the time. I’d hate not being able to brush it when I’m stressed.
My sister in law shaved hers off a few months ago and it did not look good. It’s growing out a bit and she looked better at Christmas. I know this is mean but around Halloween when she first did it my mom said she looks like a refugee and sorry but I laughed. That assessment was harsh but accurate.
How was the learning curve on the Dyson? I’m dying to try it but it’s hard to bite the bullet on that price point!
I can vouch for the Dyson. I bought the Dyson airwrap earlier this year and LOVE IT. Seriously, it makes my hair appear so much fuller. In addition, it isn’t as harmful on the hair. It is expensive for sure, but I love mine.
As for the learning curve, it was pretty easy. It took me maybe 2 or 3 times before I figured it out. Once you get it, it’s easy and becomes second nature.
I kinda want it too but it is steep price!
I have alopecia and it is not for the faint of heart. No more tears but I wear wigs and she is extremely brave to talk about, My friends don’t even understand as I down play it and try not to talk about it. My eyelashes and my eyebrows are now going.
I wonder if Rikki uses a US brand of hair dye… I recently learned I’m allergic to PPD, which is in a lot of dyes but especially over the counter dyes in the US and it makes my hair fall out. So I stopped using dyes with that ingredient and my hair is ALL growing back. It’s amazing.
Her new ‘do really accentuates her features – I guess feeling good is also looking good. Good for her!
I rarely think people are going to look good going all the way bald, and I’m consistently astounded by how amazing EVERY woman who’s done it looks. I nearly shaved mine once and chickened out. I just cut it shorter than I’ve ever had it before. I also like playing with wigs, but I’m too poor for the very nice ones that don’t actually look like wigs. I only have one so far, but I’d like a whole collection to play with.
Two years ago cancer took my hair which I loved my naturally straight hair . After treatment it grew back curly and I decided to keep it short. I decided my hair was not so important but my life is.
And that, my friends, is the ultimate perspective.
So glad you are here with us CM!