Jada Pinkett Smith talks hair loss: ‘I was literally shaking in fear’

Jada Pinkett Smith typically comes across as confident and fearless, but she recently opened up about her experience with hair loss as a woman, one that left her covering her hair with turbans.

"A lot of people have been asking why I've been wearing turbans," Pinkett Smith, 46, said on an episode of her Facebook Watch show "Red Table Talk." "Well, I haven't talked about it. It's not easy to talk about, but I am going to talk about it."

In the Facebook Watch show, Pinkett Smith speaks with her daughter, Willow, and her mother, Adrienne, and they have candid conversation about their life experiences.

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People reported that, in the latest episode, Pinkett Smith said that one day she saw handfuls of hair in her hand.

“It was terrifying when it first started. 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?’” she said.

“It was one of those times in my life where I was literally shaking in fear. That’s why I cut my hair, and why I continue to cut it.”

Pinkett Smith has recently been photographed with an asymmetrical bob that covers most of her hair line and a scarf around her head with hair poking out on top, or covering her hair altogether with a scarf.

She admitted that the process of dealing with hair loss was a challenge, and although she’s seen multiple specialists, a cause for her hair loss has not been determined.

“My hair has been a big part of me,” Pinkett Smith said. “Taking care of my hair has been a beautiful ritual, and having the choice to have hair or not. And then one day to be, like, ‘Oh my God, I might not have that choice anymore.’”

“I’ve gotten every kind of test there is to have,” she said. “They don’t know why.”

Pinkett Smith said she took a spiritual approach to come to terms with her hair loss.

“I really had to put it into a spiritual perspective, like the higher power takes so much from people. People are out here with cancer. People have sick children. I watch the higher power take things every day,” she said.

“When my hair is wrapped, I feel like a queen,” she said.

"Red Table Talk" airs weekly on Facebook Watch.

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