”THE PUNCH”FULL TEXT ARTICLES
ARTICLE I
BBCWILL SMITH HITS CHRIS ROCK ON OSCARS STAGE
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-60897004
Will Smith slapped Chris Rock in the face on stage at the Oscars after the comic made a joke about the actor’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith.
“Jada, can’t wait for GI Jane 2,” Rock said, in an apparent reference to her shaved hairdo – a result of the hair loss condition alopecia.
Smith walked on stage and struck Rock before returning to his seat and shouting: “Keep my wife’s name out of your [expletive] mouth.”
He later apologised to the Academy.
In a tearful acceptance speech for best actor, he also said he wanted to apologise to all his fellow nominees. There was no specific apology for Rock.
The star picked up the first Oscar of his career for playing the father of tennis legends Venus and Serena Williams in King Richard.
“Art imitates life,” he said. “I look like the crazy father, just like they said about Richard Williams. But love will make you do crazy things.”
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which organises the Oscars, tweeted that it “does not condone violence of any form”.
Rock’s joke referred to 1997 film GI Jane, in which Demi Moore played the title role with a severe buzzcut.
Pinkett Smith rolled her eyes at the comment, while Smith appeared to initially laugh and clap his hands before he was seen on stage, walking up to Rock.
The comedian looked stunned in the immediate aftermath of the incident, but told the audience: “That was the greatest night in the history of television.”
He is yet to comment further on what happened.
The Los Angeles Police Department later told Variety that Rock had “declined to file a police report” following the event.
After the incident, Rock handed over the best documentary prize, which was the reason he was on stage.
According to The Hollywood Reporter’s Scott Feinberg, a tearful Smith needed to be “pulled aside and comforted” by Denzel Washington and Tyler Perry.
The trio could be seen talking just in front of the stage during an advert break, with Washington and Perry putting their hands on his shoulders. A Star is Born actor Bradley Cooper was also seen standing with Smith and appearing to reassure him.
Presenting the next section, Sean “Diddy” Combs said: “Will and Chris, we’re going to solve that like family. Right now we’re moving on with love.”
Fresh Prince of Bel Air actor Smith later wrote on Instagram: “You can’t invite people from Philly or Baltimore nowhere!!” – referring to his birthplace Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Baltimore, Maryland, where his wife of 24 years is from.
Smith attended the Vanity Fair Oscar party with sons Trey and Jaden, daughter Willow and his wife – smiling for photographers and posing with his award on the red carpet.
Other guests at the party reacted to the incident, with filmmaker David Furnish saying he tells his sons with Elton John “don’t hit anybody… under any circumstance”.
But actress and comedian Tiffany Haddish defended Smith, saying he had been standing up for his wife.
Jaden Smith tweeted after his father hit Rock: “And that’s how we do it.”
Other members of the film industry criticised Smith, with The Last Samurai producer Marshall Herskovitz calling on the Academy to take disciplinary action against him and Star Wars actor Mark Hamill calling it “the ugliest Oscar moment ever”.
He added: “Stand-up comics are very adept at handling hecklers. Violent physical assault… not so much.”
Comedian and actress Kathy Griffin said she now feared for the safety of comedy performers.
“Let me tell you something, it’s a very bad practice to walk up on stage and physically assault a comedian,” she said. “Now we all have to worry about who wants to be the Will Smith in comedy clubs and theatres.”
END OF THE BBC ARTICLE
ARTICLE II
BBCWHY DID WILL SMITH HIT CHRIS ROCK AT THE OSCARS?
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-60896604
After years of declining viewing figures, the Academy were desperate for more people to watch the 2022 Oscars.
They tried all kinds of ways to boost ratings – big stars, live performances, charismatic hosts, a new category and cutting the craft prizes down to edited highlights.
But in the event, a comedian telling a joke and a Hollywood A-lister’s furious over-reaction to it would ultimately be what seized the world’s attention.
The Academy wanted eyeballs. It has got them now.
Prior to Sunday’s ceremony, it was widely expected that Will Smith would win his first-ever Oscar, for his performance as the determined father of Venus and Serena Williams in King Richard. What wasn’t expected, however, was that he would go down in Oscars history for an entirely different reason.
Awards ceremonies are ripe environments for crazy moments. Think of Kanye storming the MTV Awards stage during Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech; the wrong best picture winner being announced at the 2017 Oscars; or politicians having drinks poured over them at the Brits.
But it’s hard to recall a more shocking and violent moment than Will Smith smacking Chris Rock in the mouth, a clip which has already been viewed hundreds of millions of times in the space of just a few hours.
“I think it brings new meaning to the term punchline,” Rebel Wilson joked at the Vanity Fair afterparty. “I’m lucky I got through the Baftas unscathed.”
Wilson made light of the fact that Smith wasn’t present to collect his best actor prize when she hosted the Bafta Film Awards in London earlier this month.
“Will Smith won for King Richard, but I thought his best performance over the past year was being OK with all his wife’s boyfriends,” she joked from the stage, a reference to the couple’s apparently open relationship.
After an audible gasp from the crowd, the Australian comic added: “What? Come on, he didn’t show up.”
Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, who have been married for 24 years, have previously spoken publicly about their extra-marital romances.
During one 2020 episode of Jada’s US chat show Red Table Talk, the couple sat down to address public speculation about an alleged affair Jada had had with R&B singer August Alsina.
“I got into a different kind of entanglement with August,” she admitted during the discussion, confirming that she and Will were “separated, amicably” at the time.
“An entanglement?” Will replied with a raised eyebrow.
“A relationship,” she clarified.
Their open and honest discussion was praised by some viewers, but the couple have also been mocked for their ambiguous relationship status and Jada’s tendency in particular to air private family matters on her talk show.
And yet, despite their on-again-off-again romance, the pair have never divorced and there has never been any doubt about Will’s devotion to his wife and his family.
That devotion, together with the public’s struggle to understand his complex marriage, perhaps explains why the actor was riled by Wilson’s comments at the Baftas.
Following his win, Will was asked about his relationship on Entertainment Tonight, and insisted that there had “never been infidelity” in his marriage.
“Jada and I talk about everything. We have never surprised one another with anything ever.”
Study the actor’s choice of words here to see how careful and precise he was being. To the casual observer, it might have looked like he’d denied any extra-marital affairs.
But actually, his wording allowed for the fact that both of them could have dated other people, without it being considered cheating by the other. In other words, they gave each other permission to have other relationships.
Why air all of this in public? “I have decided that chatter about my life can be of a benefit to people,” he said.
But it wasn’t their relationship status that Rock was mocking on Sunday. It was something more basic but potentially more painful than that – Jada’s appearance.
It was not the first time he had made a joke at her expense. In 2016, Rock hosted the Academy Awards in the year of the #OscarsSoWhite scandal, which led to Jada snubbing the ceremony.
But, as Rock humorously (and correctly) pointed out: “Jada boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna’s parties. I wasn’t invited!”
Six years later, he mocked her at the Oscars again. Except, this time, she was in the audience to hear it. And, unfortunately for Rock’s jawline, so was her husband.
“Jada, I love ya,” he began after taking to the stage to present best documentary, adding: “GI Jane 2, I can’t wait to see it!”
This joke was a reference to the 1997 US war drama GI Jane, which saw Demi Moore shave her head to play Jordan O’Neil, the first woman to undergo Navy Seal training.
By implying that Jada could star in a possible sequel, Chris Rock was poking fun at her closely-shaven head.
What he might not have realised is that Jada has alopecia – an auto-immune disorder that causes hair loss.
She looked cross about the joke, rolling her eyes, and we all know what Will Smith did next.
The on-stage altercation travelled around the world in seconds. Smith’s short temper would come to define the entire 2022 ceremony.
There were elements of performative alpha-male behaviour at play here. An instinctiveness for a man to harm another man who insults his partner.
But the whole episode raises the question of what is off-limits in comedy. Many have argued celebrities are used to the pressures of being in the spotlight and are therefore fair game for jokes. But others say Rock crossed a line by commenting on Jada’s health condition and that Will was right to defend his wife.
It’s worth noting that Rock’s joke wasn’t the most offensive we’ve heard from an awards ceremony compere in recent years. If the significantly-more-brutal Golden Globes host Ricky Gervais had been fronting the Oscars on Sunday instead, he might be in a coffin by now.
“I think a comedian’s job to walk that line about what is acceptable about comedy,” Wilson said after the Oscars.
Others went further in defending Rock.
Director Judd Apatow wrote in a since-deleted tweet: “He could have killed him. That’s pure out-of-control rage and violence. They’ve heard a million jokes about them in the last three decades. They are not freshman in the world of Hollywood and comedy. He lost his mind.”
The incident loomed large over the rest of the ceremony. When Amy Schumer, one of the three hosts, returned to the stage following the punch, she joked knowingly: “Did I miss something? It feels like the vibe has changed.” The audience was relieved to have someone defusing the tension.
Backstage in the press room, there was complete silence as everyone watched the altercation on the overhead screens. At first, most people assumed it was some kind of pre-planned sketch. Two showbiz veterans of this stature would know how to stage a fake slap.
By the time Smith was sitting back in his seat and shouting to Rock to “keep my wife’s name out your [expletive] mouth”, it was clear this was serious. A seasoned professional like Smith would know better than to drop the F-bomb on stage during a live TV broadcast.
Viewers at home didn’t hear the swearing. Broadcast network ABC had cut the live feed to avoid offending viewers at home. In the winners’ room Academy staffers looked just as shocked as the journalists did. “I thought they were doing a bit,” one said to his colleague.
Rock, meanwhile, looked visibly shaken. But he dealt with the situation with remarkable presence of mind. Realising he’d just made Oscars history, he made light of what had just happened, commenting: “That was the greatest night in the history of television.”
It inevitably overshadowed the rest of the evening. Stars like Billie Eilish, Jessica Chastain, Jane Campion and many more showed up to answer questions and react to receiving the highest honour in showbusiness. But it was clear all anybody could think about was the smack.
Summer of Soul director Questlove was asked about what it was like having to accept best documentary straight after Smith had hit Rock. “I’m not going to talk about that,” he replied.
Later, another journalist asked Chastain to react to what happened. She was about to answer when an Academy staffer cut her off and moved on to the next question.
The best actor category was one of the last ones of the night. Smith duly won. But with his aggression still at the front of everyone’s mind, he delivered a slightly bizarre acceptance speech, the subtext of which was that his anger with Rock was justified because of his own love for and instinct to protect those closest to him.
“Richard Williams was a fierce defender of his family,” he began, attempting to link the character he played in the film with his behaviour at the ceremony.
“Now I know, to do what we do, you’ve got to be able to take abuse,” he acknowledged. “You got to be able to have people talk crazy about you. In this business, you’ve got to be able to have people disrespecting you, and you’ve got to smile and you’ve got to pretend like that’s OK.
“Denzel [Washington, friend and fellow nominee] said to me a few minutes ago, he said, ‘At your highest moment, be careful, that’s when the devil comes for you.'”
He concluded with an apology to everyone present, with the notable exception of Rock.
“I want to apologise to the Academy. I want to apologise to all my fellow nominees,” he said. “I hope the Academy invites me back.”
For its part, the Academy said it “does not condone violence of any kind”.
Smith has been under severe pressure for several weeks – both due to the exhaustion of campaigning in awards season and the increased scrutiny of his marriage. But few would agree that is an excuse for violence.
His reputation and career is now in the hands of public opinion. The debate that rages over the next few days will be crucial.
END OF THE BBC ARTICLE
ARTICLE III
BBCHAIR LOSS: JADA PINKETT SMITH REVEALS ALOPECIA BATTLE
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-44209981
Jada Pinkett Smith has opened up about her struggle with hair loss in the latest episode of her Facebook chat show, Red Table Talk.
“I’ve been getting a lot of questions about why I’ve been wearing this turban,” said the US actress, 46.
“Well, I’ve been having issues with hair loss. And it was terrifying when it first started.”
Doctors have not identified a cause but Smith believes it may be stress-related.
The Girls Trip star says she first suspected she had the hair loss disease after “handfuls of hair” came loose in the shower.
“I was just like ‘Oh my god am I going bald?’ It was one of those times in my life where I was literally shaking with fear,” she explained. “That’s why I cut my hair and continue to cut it.”
Her comments feature in the third episode of her Facebook mini-series, co-hosted by her mother Adrienne Canfield Norris, and teenage daughter Willow Smith.
Other topics discussed have included coping with loss, motherhood and body image – with Willow previously disclosing she self-harmed as a child following the release of her debut single Whip My Hair in 2010.
Smith admitted she finds her hair loss “difficult to talk about” as taking care of it used to be a “beautiful ritual”.
However, she said, the fate of her body lies in a “higher power” and that accepting it has helped her find perspective to deal with the emotional impact of alopecia.
“People are out here with cancer, with sick children… I watch the higher power take things every day,” she said, adding her hair loss pales by comparison.
“When I looked at it from that perspective it did settle me.”
As a result of the physical changes, Smith begun wearing scarves on her head, which she said act as an empowering fashion choice.
“When my hair is wrapped, I feel like a queen,” she said.
ARTICLE IV
THE GUARDIANCHRIS ROCK SAYS HE IS ”STILL PROCESSING”WILL SMITH’S OSCAR SLAP
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2022/mar/30/chris-rock-will-smith-slap-standup
Comedian makes first public remarks since incident during comedy show in Boston
Chris Rock has made his first public remarks after being slapped on live television by Will Smith during Sunday’s Academy Awards, saying at a Wednesday night comedy show that he was “still processing” the incident.
At his show in Boston, his first since the Oscars and part of a pre-existing tour schedule, Rock addressed the controversy by jokingly asking the crowd, “How was your weekend?” before explaining he “did not have a lot to say” yet about that night.
“I’m still kind of processing what happened,” he said, according to audio posted by Variety. Greeted by thunderous applause, the comedian also tamped down any audience expectations that he would talk at length about the slap, telling them: “If you came to hear that, I’m not … I had like a whole show I wrote before this weekend.”
Rock added that he would have more to say “at some point” and that it would be “serious and funny”, Variety reported.
“We love you,” someone shouted at one point, eliciting cheers from the audience, according to the audio.
The incident stunned the crowd at the 94th Academy Awards and those watching at home.
Rock had made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s buzzed haircut, comparing her to GI Jane. Pinkett Smith has a medical condition, alopecia, that has resulted in hair loss. Smith promptly stood up from his seat at the front of the venue and took the stage, slapping Rock across the face before sitting back down and yelling at Rock to keep his wife’s name out of his mouth.
Within an hour, Smith had won best actor, receiving a standing ovation. During his five-minute acceptance speech, Smith talked about defending his family and apologized to the Academy. A day later, Smith issued an apology to the comedian, the Academy and viewers at home, saying he had been “out of line” and that his actions were “not indicative of the man I want to be”.
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has condemned Smith’s behavior and said on Wednesday that it had initiated disciplinary proceedings against the star for violating its code of conduct.
The Academy, facing criticism that Smith was allowed to remain in his seat and enjoy the show after the assault, also revealed it had asked Smith to leave the ceremony but that he had refused.
Ticket prices for Rock’s shows soared after the slap. In Boston, attendees were prohibited from bringing phones or other recording devices to their seats.
George Guay, a 24-year-old fan from Boston who grew up on Rock’s TV show Everybody Hates Chris, said he had bought a ticket after the Academy Awards.
“He’s the most popular celebrity so I want to be here,” Guay said, adding that he hoped Rock would open up with a response to the situation. “I just want a good show.”
END OF THE GUARDIAN ARTICLE
ARTICLE V
HOW JADA PINKETT IS UPLIFTING BLACK WOMEN WITHALOPECIA
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/jada-pinkett-smith-uplifting-black-women-alopecia-rcna11273
The actress Jada Pinkett Smith revealed her alopecia diagnosis in 2018, and since then, she’s been embracing the challenges of the condition and publicly displaying evidence of hair loss with confidence and candor.
Last month, she released a video on Instagram to talk about a new patch of baldness caused by alopecia, a condition that causes drastic hair loss. The video, which has almost 2 million views, shows a smiling Pinkett Smith acknowledging the discovery.
“Look at this line right here,” Pinkett Smith, 50, said as she pointed to her scalp. “Now 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 not asking any questions — but you know, mama’s going to put some rhinestones in there, and I’m going to make me a little crown.”
Like Pinkett Smith, many women of color experience alopecia. According to a 2016 survey of 5,594 Black women, 47.6 percent of respondents said they experienced hair loss. A majority of respondents who experience hair loss do not seek help from medical professionals and often go undiagnosed, according to the report.
A Nurses’ Health Study conducted in 2018 found there was an increased likelihood of alopecia areata in Black and Hispanic women compared to white women.
Pinkett Smith is among the notable women of color who have broken their silence about hair loss, including Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., who revealed she had alopecia in 2020. Hearing celebrities share their stories inspires those like 43-year-old Mabel Peralta, who was diagnosed in 2014 with alopecia areata, an autoimmune disorder that causes unpredictable patchy baldness on different areas of the body.
Peralta, who is Afro Latina, said that growing up, hair was a primary focus in her Dominican culture. When she began losing her hair, she said she felt like less of a woman and struggled to cope.
“When I let my hair grow long — if it ever gets long — it’s, like, wispy,” Peralta said. “It barely covers my scalp. So I just shave it down just because I don’t want to look at it sometimes. Sometimes I’m like ‘Ah, it’s fine,’ and other days I’m like ‘Oh my God, I can’t even deal with this right now.’”
Peralta said that she was extremely distraught immediately after her diagnosis, due to her hair loss and lack of a good support system. She also said talking about her condition with others would initiate emotional turmoil when she did not want to discuss it.
After getting trolled on TikTok for owning a large assortment of wigs, Peralta decided to share her condition with followers in late 2020. In that moment, she also wanted to become an advocate by helping others who may be struggling with hair loss and lacked the proper support.
“Not having someone there was a little hard,” Peralta said, “but that’s why I’m such an advocate for talking about it on a constant basis because I want to be there for others — because I know it’s not easy.”
As a way to promote healing for people of color, psychologist Afiya Mbilishaka launched PsychoHairapy, a program that trains stylists to recognize mental illness in patients. Some women who lose their hair can develop social anxiety, depression and paranoia, Mbilishaka said.
In addition to offering mental health counseling, the organization holds mindfulness and meditation sessions, and hosts book clubs with a focus on literature detailing the history of Black culture and hair. PsychoHairapy also identifies the themes that emerge around hair among people of color. Mbilishaka said it’s important for Black celebrities to explore their hair loss journey, which can disrupt the Western concepts of beauty of long, straight hair.
END OF THE ARTICLE
ARTICLE VI
ARTICLE VI
CNN HEALTHWHAT TO KNOW ABOUT ALOPECIA, THE HAIR LOSS CONDITIONAFFECTING JADA PINKETT SMITH
(CNN)Jada Pinkett Smith found herself at the center of conflict when her husband Will Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock at the Oscars ceremony on Sunday. Rock joked about Pinkett Smith’s shaved head — a look that she has said is more than a style preference.Pinkett Smith has shared publicly that she has alopecia areata, an autoimmune disease that causes hair loss on the scalp and elsewhere, according to the National Alopecia Areata Foundation. Hair follicles affected by the disease are mistakenly attacked by a person’s immune system, which stops hair growth.
Alopecia areata begins with one or more small bald patches, typically on a person’s scalp.”These affected follicles become very small, drastically slow down production and grow no hair visible above the surface for months or years,” according to NAAF.
The condition typically starts in childhood, with one or more small, round and smooth bald patches. But alopecia areata is different from male or female pattern hair loss, which is called androgenetic alopecia, the most common form of hair loss, said Dr. Brett King, an associate professor of dermatology at the Yale School of Medicine. Androgenetic alopecia happens when scalp follicles are hypersensitive to dihydrotestosterone, which is critical for most hair growth but detrimental to head hair growth.
Over the past eight years since discovering a class of medicines called Jak inhibitors could treat this disease, King has “probably seen 700 or more (patients) with severe alopecia areata,” he said.
Sunday night’s events have sparked curiosity about the disease, which affects all genders and races — about 6.8 million people in the United States and 147 million people worldwide. Massachusetts Representative Ayanna Pressley and “Doctor Who” actor Matt Lucas have also publicly shared their experiences of dealing with alopecia areata.CNN spoke with King about alopecia areata and its causes, spectrum of severity, effects on daily life, and available treatments.
The following conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.CNN: What causes alopecia areata?Dr. Brett King: There’s a genetic basis for the disease, meaning that people with alopecia areata often have a genetic predisposition to manifesting hair loss. But as with all diseases with a genetic predisposition, the factors that make the disease turn on or off are unclear. If you take identical twins who have the same genes, and one of them has alopecia areata, there’s only about a 50% chance that the other one develops it. So again, there are other factors that we don’t understand that make the disease turn on and off.It has long been said that the disease is caused by stress, depression, anxiety or other environmental factors. But there’s not a lot of high-quality evidence of that. While stress may be an exacerbating factor for some, it’s not the cause.
CNN: Are any other body parts affected?King: Hair and nails are both made of keratin, a protein, which may explain why nails can be affected. When nails are affected, typically what you get are pits, as if somebody took a needle and poked a bunch of little indentations in the nail surface. Uncommonly, the nails become very rough and/or brittle and, rarely, there can be loss of nails.CNN: Does everyone with alopecia lose all their hair?King: Most often, people with alopecia areata have a spot or a few spots of hair loss. It could be a dime- to a half-dollar-size spot. With treatment, and sometimes without treatment, these spots will often go away. In a handful of people, those spots may go away while new spots appear. Uncommonly — maybe in 10% to 25% of people with alopecia areata — those spots will, over the course of weeks or months or years, progress to severe hair loss or no hair.CNN: What influences case severity?King: We don’t know what the factors are that make one person have only mild disease and somebody else have severe hair loss. It’s highly unpredictable, which is one of the things that make alopecia areata so menacing for those who suffer from it.
CNN: Is alopecia hair loss permanent?King: Hair loss is reversible in alopecia areata. In cases where hair is absent for too long, like more than 10 years, it may be permanent.CNN: What happens to hair loss over time?King: Alopecia areata is unpredictable, and there’s no way to know if the spots of hair loss that go away today will not happen again for three months, three years or 30 years. What we can say with some confidence is that most people will have a manageable number of spots that will come and go. Last night I ran into someone who said she had a spot 30 years ago. She hasn’t had another spot since then, but she still has the ability to because it’s in her genes.CNN: What do people with alopecia tend to experience personally?King: I don’t want to speak for everybody with alopecia areata, but I think I can for most people I’ve seen. For many people with alopecia areata, it feels like disfigurement. Imagine if you woke up today with parts or all of your eyebrows missing — would you have stopped by Starbucks? Or would you have hidden yourself and tried to find answers, thinking something was wrong with you?Hair expresses individuality and sex. Just Google evolution — the top images are of the Neanderthal with head-to-toe hair. Over time we lost most body hair but retained head and facial hair. Evolution did that for a reason. The hair on our heads is important.So, hair loss is devastating. You can cover up a few hairless spots, but not 30% or 100% scalp hair loss. You don’t look like yourself, and those who recognized you yesterday don’t today. Eyebrows are really important for facial recognition. And not only that, but what do people think you have? Every time you see a billboard with a hairless face or a woman wearing a scarf on her head, you instinctively think she has cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy. Historically, people have shamed others by shaving their heads. There’s a lot wrapped up in hair. With that severe distortion comes severe anguish.CNN: Are there any cures or treatments?King: We can cure bacterial infections or a viral infection such as Covid-19. But we can’t cure alopecia areata just as we can’t cure any autoimmune diseases.What is a little bit different about alopecia areata is that we haven’t in the past had effective treatments, either. That changed with the report of a young man with severe alopecia areata who I treated with a medicine called tofacitinib, which belongs to a class of medicines called JAK inhibitors.He regrew all his hair. I used this medicine because there was emerging science to show that JAK inhibitors could interrupt the pathological events leading to immune system attack on hair follicles. The report gave hope of effective treatment and led to interest in developing treatments for people suffering from alopecia areata in the pharmaceutical industry.There are now phase III clinical trials of JAK inhibitors in alopecia areata, which are showing tremendous promise. We are at the precipice of a historic event. For people who have severe alopecia areata, for the first time in history, there’s the possibility that we might be able to reverse their disease, make it better, restore normalcy.
CNN: Do you have any words for people with alopecia areata?King: Most of these people have been told that there’s no treatment, that they should be happy it’s not cancer, or that it’s ‘just hair.’ But now there’s hope of relief from this often awful disease. These treatments are going to change lives for many of these people. Your suffering is shared by many others and their families also. Find a dermatologist who can take the time to answer your questions and help you understand if these medicines might be helpful for you. But don’t take for an answer that ‘at least you don’t have cancer.’ Let’s keep going until there is effective treatment for everybody.
END OF THE ARTICLE
BBCHAIR LOSS: JADA PINKETT REVEALS ALOPECIA BATTLE
Jada Pinkett Smith has opened up about her struggle with hair loss in the latest episode of her Facebook chat show, Red Table Talk.
“I’ve been getting a lot of questions about why I’ve been wearing this turban,” said the US actress, 46.
“Well, I’ve been having issues with hair loss. And it was terrifying when it first started.”
Doctors have not identified a cause but Smith believes it may be stress-related.
The Girls Trip star says she first suspected she had the hair loss disease after “handfuls of hair” came loose in the shower.
“I was just like ‘Oh my god am I going bald?’ It was one of those times in my life where I was literally shaking with fear,” she explained. “That’s why I cut my hair and continue to cut it.”
Her comments feature in the third episode of her Facebook mini-series, co-hosted by her mother Adrienne Canfield Norris, and teenage daughter Willow Smith.
Other topics discussed have included coping with loss, motherhood and body image – with Willow previously disclosing she self-harmed as a child following the release of her debut single Whip My Hair in 2010.
Smith admitted she finds her hair loss “difficult to talk about” as taking care of it used to be a “beautiful ritual”.
However, she said, the fate of her body lies in a “higher power” and that accepting it has helped her find perspective to deal with the emotional impact of alopecia.
“People are out here with cancer, with sick children… I watch the higher power take things every day,” she said, adding her hair loss pales by comparison.
“When I looked at it from that perspective it did settle me.”
As a result of the physical changes, Smith begun wearing scarves on her head, which she said act as an empowering fashion choice.
“When my hair is wrapped, I feel like a queen,” she said.
END OF THE ARTICLE
END OF THE ARTICLES