Ricki Lake Reveals Longtime Struggle With Depression & Hair Loss

Written by @lessh

Ricki Lake, the iconic 90s talk show host, posted a photo of herself on New Year’s Day with a very closely cropped haircut and shared a deeply personal story about her struggles with depression and suicidal thoughts since experiencing hair thinning and loss for most of her adult life.

She said she can only assume it’s the years of having her hair color processed for different roles in her career from her starring as Tracy Turnblad in the 1988 film, “Hairspray” to hosting a daytime talk show for more than a decade. She also said it could be her years of dieting, genetics, and more.

“From Hairspray to Hairless 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,” she said. ”Working as talent on various shows and movies, whether DWTS or my talk show, also took its toll on my fine hair.”

She finally decided to just shave it all off, and she’s happy with her decision.

”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,” Lake added. ”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 my love, Jeff Scult, I buzzed my hair off, and it feels so good!”

 

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A post shared by Ricki Lake (@rickilake) on Jan 1, 2020 at 11:25am PST