Ricki Lake has shown off her new buzz cut – and revealed her battle with hair loss – in a candid Facebook post.
‘I have been struggling with hair loss for most of my adult life,’ the 51-year-old former talk show host revealed.
‘There have been a few times where I have even felt suicidal over it,’ admitted the Serial Mom actress.
New look: Ricki Lake has shown off her new buzz cut – and revealed her battle with hair loss – in a candid Facebook post
In Wednesday’s post, the mother-of-two began, ‘I am not sick. (THANK GOD.)’
‘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.’
She then said her chronic hair loss ‘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.’
Before: ‘I have been struggling with hair loss for most of my adult life,’ the 51-year-old former talk show host revealed. Seen here on the set of 1998 film Hairspray
‘Almost no one in my life knew the level of deep pain and trauma I was experiencing,’ continued the host of The Ricki Lake Show, ‘Not even my therapist/s over the years knew my truth.
‘I know that by sharing my truth, I will be striking a chord with so so many women and men. I am not alone in this and my goal is to help others while at the same time unshackle myself from this quiet hell I have been living in.’
‘Ever since I played Tracy Turnblad in the original Hairspray back in 1988 and they triple-processed and teased my then healthy virgin hair every 2 weeks during filming, my hair was never the same. (Yes, that was all my own hair in the film.)’
‘From Hairspray to Hairless.’
Opening up: ‘There have been a few times where I have even felt suicidal over it,’ admitted the Serial Mom actress in the post
‘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.’
Her short-term solutions to the problems involved hair extensions and wigs, but the New York native ‘never could get used to them’.
‘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.’
Before: ‘Working as talent on various shows and movies, whether DWTS or my talk show, also took its toll on my fine hair,’ said Ricki, seen here in November 2019
But after her latest shedding incident, Lake decided enough was enough.
‘This time, I say no more. I have to be set free,’ she wrote.
‘Well, it is a new year and new decade and a new me. With the love and support of some of my dearest friends, John Bonny, Mandy Ingber, Sarah Havana Prats, and Jeff Scult, I buzzed my hair off and it feels so good!’
‘I am liberated. I am free. I am releasing and letting go. I am brave. I am beautiful I am love. For 2020 and beyond, I want to be real.’
To blame? ‘Ever since I played Tracy Turnblad in the original Hairspray back in 1988 and they triple-processed and teased my then healthy virgin hair every 2 weeks during filming, my hair was never the same’ wrote Ricki
Ricki married illustrator Rob Sussman in 1994, and the pair had two sons before divorcing in 2005.
Lake began dating jewelry designer Christian Evans in 2009 and the couple were married in 2012.
The couple were divorced in 2015, and Evans tragically took his own life in 2017.
The actress is now dating clothing designer Jeff Scult.
A new decade: After her latest shedding incident, Lake decided enough was enough
Resolutions: ‘I am liberated. I am free. I am releasing and letting go. I am brave. I am beautiful I am love. For 2020 and beyond, I want to be real’
