Ricki Lake Speaks Out About Her Severe Hair Loss

Ricki Lake is beloved by fans across the globe. The actor, producer, and TV presenter rose to fame playing the lead role of Tracy Turnblad in the 1988 film "Hairspray," for which she received the Independent Spirit Award. Lake was subsequently the face of her own talk show, "Ricki Lake," which ran from 1993 until May 2004. But while her many accolades are widely known, few may know that Lake has been battling hair loss throughout most of her career. 

On Instagram on December 31, 2021, Lake wrote about her decision to shave her head. "2 years ago today I took a leap of faith. I finally surrendered and came out about my decades long struggle with hair loss (and shaved my head.) It was so scary and so liberating," she shared. "The journey since has been such a gift. Self-love and acceptance has been the great takeaway. And 2 years later, I sit in total gratitude for the journey."

Lake went on to express gratitude to those who have supported her, including her new husband Ross Burningham. "Thank you to my friends, loved ones and role models who helped me along the way to loving myself exactly as I am," she wrote. "It has been pivotal in my quest to call in and find my beloved Ross and true happiness."

In a Facebook post, per "Good Morning America," Ricki Lake explained that her time on Broadway in the 1980s largely contributed to her hair struggles. "I've been to many doctors, gotten steroid shots in my head, taking all the supplements and then some," Lake wrote on Facebook. "My hair would recover and then shed again. It was maddening."

January 2021 was when the actor opened up about her hair loss publicly for the first time. In her "GMA" interview that month, Lake spoke about shaving her head, stating, "It was such a right of passage last year taking the leap of faith to shave my head, and my hair, thankfully, has grown back. And I learned so much through the process of really letting go of something that had been really bothering me for decades." She added that she had previously kept her hair loss private and finally felt as if she was "coming clean" when she made the decision to shave her head. Since then, she has been open in sharing with fans how liberating and humbling the experience has been. 

"I've come to embrace not only my hair that has grown back, but also the color," the 53-year-old said on "GMA." "This is my natural color and as a society as women, we're not supposed to embrace aging."