Ricki Lake Embraces Her Hair Loss in Intimate Photo

Ricki Lake is on a mission to break down the “taboo” of hair loss. The documentary filmmaker and former talk show host, who revealed in an Instagram post last year that she’s been dealing with hair loss for three decades, took a moment to embrace her natural hair and open up about hair loss in an awe-inspiring social media post to mark National Hair Loss Awareness Month, which began on Sunday, Aug. 1.

The Hairspray alum took to Instagram on Sunday with a gallery of images of herself rocking a variety of short hairstyles, including a nearly shaved head, as she embraced her hair loss. In the accompanying caption, Lake said that “it’s the perfect time for breaking down the taboo of hair loss” and also for “learning about some of the treatment options available.” She gave a special nod to Harklinikken, the Danish-born clinic that specializes in customized hair-restoration treatments that she said “was the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow” for her. Opening up about her own experience with hair loss, Lake said that “after years of trying so many products and treatments,” she finally “found the simple protocol that genuinely works for me,” a treatment that she “would recommend… to anyone suffering from hair loss or simply wanting to achieve fuller and healthier hair.”

Lake first turned to Harklinikken in February 2020 after trying various methods, including Rogaine, prescription medications, and steroid injections to treat her hair loss. It was there that she was diagnosed with androgenetic alopecia, a genetic condition that causes gradual thinning. She eventually began the strict Harklinikken regimen, which involves twice-daily applications of a customized extract and the use of specific Harklinikken shampoo, conditioner and styling products. Lake told PEOPLE “the difference was night and day,” noting that within three months, she had enough hair to run her fingers through.

Lake’s Harklinikken’s treatment came after she emotionally detailed her 30-year struggle with hair loss in a January 2020 Instagram post, sharing with fans that she’d been struggling with the issue in 1988 when she shot Hairspray. Lake said she went from “Hairspray to Hairless” in part due to the harsh styling of “virgin hair” as well as factors including “yo-yo dieting, hormonal birth control, radical weight fluctuations over the years, my pregnancies, genetics, stress, and hair dyes and extensions.” She eventually began wearing extensions and later tried wigs, though “it all felt fake and I was super self-conscious and uncomfortable.”

In the emotional post, Lake said her struggle with hair loss had “been debilitating, embarrassing, painful, scary, depressing, lonely” and she had been “suffering in silence.” She wrote that she chose to be candid about he struggles because she knew “that by sharing my truth, I will be striking a chord with so so many women and men. I am not alone in this and my goal is to help others while at the same time unshackle myself from this quiet hell I have been living in.”