What Is Alopecia?
“Alopecia” is the medical term for all types of hair loss. Unfortunately, reporters covering the Oscars kept referring to Pinkett-Smith’s hair loss as “alopecia” without further clarification – even though Pinkett-Smith has talked about it on her Instagram posts and in interviews since 2018. Pinkett-Smith actually has alopecia areata, one of several kinds of alopecia. She showed off her newly shaved head on December 28, 2021 – including the patches without functioning hair follicles.
In her Facebook Watch show (Red Table Talk), Pinkett-Smith not only discussed her condition, but Tiffany Haddish joined to talk about their emotional connections to their hair and what happened when they shaved their heads. Pinkett-Smith showed the process of shaving her head in that RTT episode and explained why she decided to shave her head.
In the same episode, Yvonne Orji from the TV show Insecure discussed her hair loss due to scarring alopecia – also known as traction alopecia. This form of hair loss is due to damage from tight hairstyles that damage the scalp.
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