Rep. Ayanna Pressley Bares Insecurities As She Details Her Experience With Alopecia, Baldness
“I felt naked, exposed, vulnerable,” said Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.). She also felt that she was participating in cultural betrayal because of all the young girls who looked up to her as a congresswoman who wore braids. “I felt like I owed those little girls an explanation.” Scientists are not sure what causes the immune system to attack healthy hair follicles, but over six million people in the United States have the condition.
The Root:
Rep. Ayanna Pressley Reveals Baldness And Alopecia For The First Time
Ayanna Pressley loves playing with her hair. Before she became a Massachusetts Congresswoman (and a high-profile member of “The Squad”), Pressley would experiment with different hairstyles and textures, getting a weave and even cutting her own hair. ... But the wigs are a noticeable departure from her signature Senegalese and bomb twists, which have become synonymous with her political brand and made her the hero of little black girls across the country. Now, the congresswoman has decided to go public as to her reason why: She has alopecia. (Moulite, 1/16)
The New York Times:
Ayanna Pressley Opens Up About Living With Alopecia And Hair Loss
Representative Ayanna Pressley, Democrat of Massachusetts, revealed in a video released on Thursday that she has a condition called alopecia and is now bald. “This is about acceptance,” Ms. Pressley said of her decision to publicly discuss her baldness. “I hope this starts a conversation about the personal struggles we navigate, and I hope that it creates awareness about how many people are impacted by alopecia.” (Garcia and Rabin, 1/16)
The Associated Press:
Rep. Ayanna Pressley Goes Public With Alopecia And Baldness
The freshman Massachusetts Democrat made a touching video for The Root, the African American-focused website, in which she revealed her bald head and said she felt compelled to go public due to the impact her Senegalese twists had on supporters. Senegalese twists are a protective hairstyle worn by black women, much like braided hairstyles. Her style was noteworthy in how Afrocentric it was. In many corporations, black women are expected to wear their hair straightened (though their hair tends to be more coily) and the legacy of black women wearing their hair close to or in its natural state is fraught and intertwined with the legacy of racism. (Italie, 1/16)
The Washington Post:
Rep. Ayanna Pressley Reveals She Has Alopecia And Lost Her Hair In Root Interview
“In the fall, when I was getting my hair retwisted, is the first time that I was made aware that I had some patches,” Pressley recalled. “From there, it accelerated very quickly. Soon enough, Pressley said, she began “waking up every morning to sinkfuls of hair. According to the National Alopecia Areata Foundation, the condition develops when the body’s immune system attacks healthy follicles, creating issues in hair production. While it affects 6.8 million people in the United States of all ages, genders and ethnic groups, according to the foundation, scientists have not yet determined what exactly triggers the disease. (Brice-Saddler, 1/16)
NBC News:
Rep. Ayanna Pressley Reveals She Has Alopecia, Debuts Bald Head
Pressley said she has been bald only in the privacy of her home and in the company of close friends. She said she experimented with different hairstyles, including weaves and wigs. (She nicknamed one wig "FLOTUS" because to her "it feels very Michelle Obama," and she calls another of her wigs "Trace," after the actress Tracee Ellis Ross.) (Griffith, 1/16)
