Consultant Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts revealed in a video launched Thursday that she has alopecia and is now bald, saying that she needed “to be free.”
Within the video, revealed on The Root, Ms. Pressley detailed her hair journey, from the time she most felt like herself in her signature Senegalese twists to the second final yr that she realized she had alopecia.
“Within the fall, after I was getting my hair retwisted, is the primary time that I used to be made conscious that I had some patches. From there it accelerated in a short time,” Ms. Pressley mentioned within the video.
Alopecia is an autoimmune pores and skin illness that causes hair to fall out from the scalp, face and different elements of the physique. Scientists will not be positive what causes the immune system to assault wholesome hair follicles and make the hair fall out, in line with the National Alopecia Areata Foundation.
Over six million folks in the USA have alopecia. It may possibly have an effect on folks of all ages, sexes and ethnic teams, the muse mentioned.
Within the video, the consultant mentioned that she started to get up to “sinkfuls of hair,” and that she tried various things like wrapping her hair and carrying a bonnet — issues black ladies do to guard their hair whereas they sleep — to maintain her hair from falling out, however they didn’t work.
“I didn’t need the morning to come back the place I’ll take away this bonnet and my wrap and be met with extra hair within the sink, and a picture within the mirror of an individual who more and more felt like a stranger to me,” Ms. Pressley mentioned.
On the day final month when Ms. Pressley was to forged a vote to question President Trump, she realized she was utterly bald. She wore a wig on the ground as a result of she felt she needed to be current, whatever the state of her hair, she mentioned.
“I felt bare, uncovered, weak,” Ms. Pressley mentioned, including that she additionally felt that she was collaborating in cultural betrayal due to all of the younger women who regarded as much as her for being a congresswoman who wears braids.
“I felt like I owed these little women an evidence,” Ms. Pressley mentioned.
Towards the tip of the video, Ms. Pressley removes her wig and divulges her bald head.
After the video was launched, her friends confirmed assist for her on Twitter.
“Might you think about shedding all of your hair on the eve of an enormously public day? After which turning that intensely intimate ordeal to create space for others? Ayanna, you’re a residing blessing,” Consultant Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said on Twitter.
“Proud to rely her as a buddy, glad so many within the subsequent era have her as a job mannequin,” former Senator John Kerry mentioned on Twitter.
“I’m making peace with having alopecia,” Ms. Pressley mentioned within the video. “I’m making progress each day.”