"It was terrifying when it first started," Pinkett Smith said. "I was in the shower one day and had just handfuls of hair in my hands and I was just like, oh my god, am I going bald?"
The 94th Academy Awards were dramatic, to say the least.
In a shocking moment during the ceremony, American icon Will Smith took to the stage and slapped host Chris Rock for making an insensitive comment about the former's wife's alopecia, a medical condition that results in hair loss.
Jada Pinkett Smith was sitting in the audience with her husband when Rock made a quip about her shaven head. "Jada, I love you - G.I. Jane 2, can't wait to see it!" Rock told her, as a nod to Demi Moore's 1997 film G.I. Jane, where Moore shave her head for the role.
Initially, her husband was laughing along, but Pinkett Smith wasn't, and at one point, she even rolled her eyes as Rock tried to defend himself, saying: "That was a nice one!"
Just moments later, Smith could be seen walking up to the stage and slapping a stunned Rock before heading back to his seat."Will Smith just smacked the s**t out of me," Rock told the audience.
Smith then shouted from his seat: "Keep my wife's name out your f**king mouth." Though this incident has divided people about whether the reaction of both the celebrities was wrong and unwarranted, it has managed to shed some light on the condition that causes people to lose hair.
Pinkett Smith has previously spoken about her 'struggle' with alopecia, saying that while she wants to 'be friends' with her hair loss, it hasn't been an easy ride, according to Us Weekly.
During a 2018 episode of Red Table Talk, she recalled how scared she felt when she first started losing her hair. "It was terrifying when it first started," Pinkett Smith said. "I was in the shower one day and had just handfuls of hair in my hands and I was just like, oh my god, am I going bald?"
In a video posted on Instagram in December 2021, she also revealed how it happened 'just all of a sudden one day', but that she was determined to find peace with the condition. While pointing the camera to her scalp, Pinkett Smith said, "Now, at this point I can only laugh, but y'all know I've been struggling with alopecia."
"So it just showed up like that and this is going to be a little bit more difficult for me to hide. So I thought I’d just share it so y’all are not asking any questions.” She added: “But you know mama’s going to put some rhinestones in there. I’m going to make me a little crown. That’s what mama’s going to do.”
In the caption, she added: "Mama's gonna have to take it down to the scalp so nobody thinks she got brain surgery or something. Me and this alopecia are going to be friends... period!"
Then, during a May 2018 Red Table Talk episode, she revealed she had taken “every type of test,” but doctors were still unable to deduce why she started losing her hair.
“Even in my terror and even in my fear and in the moment of just going, ‘Oh, my God, like, why are you so terrified that you might lose your hair?’ I really had to put it in a spiritual perspective of, like, the higher power takes so much from people. People are out here who have cancer, people who have sick children. I watch the higher power take things every day,” she continued. “And, by golly, if the higher power wants to take your hair, that’s hair? When I looked at it from that perspective, it really did settle me.”
She also spoke about the time that she actually shaved her hair off, adding that her husband was ever so supportive of her. “
He loves it,” Pinkett Smith gushed about her spouse during a September 2021 episode of Red Table Talk after she shaved her head. “It was just time. I was just ready for that kind of expression and release. I’m so glad I did it. It was such a beautiful experience and such a freedom. I feel more connected to myself and to the great diving in a very special way. I was just like, ‘I’m over it.’ It was that moment. I was just like, ‘I’m done. I’m just done with the worry. I’m done with the care. I’m just done.’”
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Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by Mike Coppola
