Viola Davis Says Battle With Alopecia Affected Her Self-Esteem

In an interview with Vulture, Viola Davis revealed something about herself that many people probably didn’t know. The reason the Academy Award nominated actress wore wigs so often for years was because she was dealing with the trauma of alopecia areata. The condition causes round patches of hair loss and can possibly lead to complete hair loss, a loss that usually occurs mainly from the scalp. Here’s what she had to say about not feeling comfortable at that time in her life, and eventually having the option of wearing a wig when she wants, as opposed to wearing it because she felt she had to.

When Davis was 28, she lost half her hair to alopecia areata. “I woke up one day and it looked like I had a Mohawk. Big splash of bald on the top of my head,” she says. “I was like, What is this? Until I found out it was stress related. That’s how I internalized it. I don’t do that anymore. My favorite saying in the world is, ‘The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.’ I am telling you, I have spent so much of my life not feeling comfortable in my skin. I am just so not there anymore.”

After that alopecia, she wore a wig everywhere. “I wore a wig in the Jacuzzi. I had a wig I wore around the house. I had a wig that I wore to events. I had a wig that I wore when I worked out. I never showed my natural hair. It was a crutch, not an enhancement … I was so desperate for people to think that I was beautiful. I had to be liberated from that [feeling] to a certain extent.” So at the 2012 Oscars, she exposed her “natural hair.” She still has her wigs; she wears them on Murder, she wears them to photo shoots, she wears them when she doesn’t have time to pick out her hair and get rid of her grays, but she no longer wears them in her everyday life. What matters, she says, is that “it’s an option … when it used to never be an option. I had something to hide.”

And we love the liberated Viola. Check out her full interview and learn more about her journey as a woman and an actress over at Vulture.