It’s difficult to forget the notorious 2022 Oscars incident in which actor Will Smith hit comedian Chris Rock for making a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, and her shaved head. Pinkett Smith has been shaving her head since 2021 due to alopecia.

It’s a touchy subject, especially for public figures whose lives are on display.

Ricki Lake, a talk show host and actor, disclosed that she had been considering suicide for over 30 years due to her self-shaming over her thinning hair.

Lake, now 54, talked openly about her hair loss and the variety of feelings she went through as she came to terms with the situation.

Lake, an actor and singer announced she has androgenetic alopecia. This hereditary disorder causes hair loss, resulting in male-pattern baldness in men and women, causing severe thinning after years of battle.

The now 54-year-old Lake posted an emotional Instagram with a picture of her shorn head and the statement, “It has been crippling, embarrassing, painful, scary, depressed, lonely, all the things. I have even experienced suicidal thoughts a few times because of it. Nearly no one in my life was aware of the extent of the trauma and severe anguish I was going through. “I am not alone in this,” she says, “and my goal is to help others while at the same time unshackle myself from this quiet hell I have been living in.”

After making her acting debut as Tracy Turnblad in the 1988 movie Hairspray, according to Lake, she transitioned from “Hairspray to Hairless.” Her delicate, virgin hair was quadruply treated over two weeks, stressing her follicles to get the 1960s bouffant look for her character.

Since then, she has been losing hair—elogen effluvium is the technical term—exacerbated by severe weight changes, depression, hormones, and the hair extensions she started using to cover up her “shame.”

Lake kept her hair loss a secret while attempting everything to restore it, including Rogaine, topical remedies, steroid injections, PRP therapy (plasma injections into the scalp), and the prescription drug Propecia, which treats androgenetic alopecia.

It was useless.

Today’s same inflated beauty standards pressed Ricki Lake while she was the host of her daytime tabloid talk show from 1993 to 2004. She was viewed by millions of admirers both in the studio and at home.

The mother of two is well-known in Hollywood and has starred in movies like Cry-Baby (1990) with Johnny Depp and Mrs. Winterbourne (1996) with Shirley MacLaine and Brendan Fraser. She has also appeared on television in King of Queens, where she plays Doug’s sister.

She has never been out of the spotlight; in addition to being a documentary filmmaker, she has recently appeared on The X Factor: Celebrity and Masked Singer.

Despite winning a Daytime Emmy for it, Lake’s 2012 revival of her old chat show with Ricki was canceled after only one season.

Lake experienced acute sadness after her ex-husband, jewelry designer Christian Evans, committed suicide in 2017. They were very close and were married from 2012 until 2015. She says his passing crushed her. She admitted to People, “I got to experience actual depression. There were times when I could not leave my bed, which was frightening. I’m an optimistic person, so not feeling that way paralyzed me.

It’s not unexpected that her hair was falling out, given the amount of stress she was experiencing in her personal and professional life.

I was frightened of coming out, Lake admitted in a 2022 People interview. because, as far as I knew, no woman had ever publicly discussed female baldness.

Lake claimed that the issue reached a new low in December 2019 and that she was forced to take control.

“I had hit rock bottom. I chose to assume leadership. Lake said she revealed her secret to her then-boyfriend and told him about her intention to shave her head. He encouraged her and assured her of her beautiful looks.

February 2, 2022, Lake rang in the new year with a fresh look, thanks to her boyfriend’s encouragement and the love of her close pals.

She published an Instagram image where she shaved her head and referred to her life as a “quiet hell.”

She claimed that making the post on the first day of the new year wasn’t planned. I merely required release from this silent suffering.

She didn’t realize that her hair would continue to grow, giving her a full head of magnificent, wavy gray hair this time. “I had no idea that my head would grow back when I shaved it. It appears miraculous.

Lake shared the video that was made when she initially shaved her head to mark the third anniversary of the day she reclaimed her authority. “In this video, you can see me come to a place of peace, liberation, and most importantly, self-love and self-acceptance,” she writes in the caption. I can honestly say that, after three years, I value and adore my naturally gray and occasionally wild, untamed head of hair.

Lake looks lovely whether she has a buzz cut or her now-naturally gray hair. We are so grateful that Ricki Lake boldly shared her experience, as it will undoubtedly benefit anyone going through a similar situation!

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