Jada Pinkett Smith, 50, discusses her struggles with alopecia: ‘At this point I can only laugh’

Jada Pinkett Smith is opening up about her experience with alopecia. “It’s something I’ve dealt with since I was a child,” the actress, 50, told People for its current cover story. “I had a big bald spot on my head. I thought, ‘Why me?’ I didn’t necessarily want to talk about it. I’m a private person.”

Actress Jada Pinkett Smith has opened up about her struggles with alopecia on Facebook. Pinkett Smith, 50, who has a 10-year-old daughter Willow and three-year-old son Jaden with husband Will Smith, talked about the condition on Facebook Live with her mother Adrienne Banfield-Jones and older sister Adrienne Banfield. ‘I have alopecia areata. I have had it since I was a little girl,’ Pinkett Smith said. ‘I have had it for so long, I can’t even tell you when it started.’

Jada Pinkett Smith has discussed her struggles with alopecia. The actress and her daughter Willow Smith both have the disorder, which causes hair loss. “Here’s the interesting thing about alopecia. You can be very cavalier about it, because it’s not like, ‘Oh my ***, my hair’s falling out.’ It’s like, ‘Oh, my hair is falling out.’ It’s like, ‘OK, I’ll go to the store and get a wig,'” she told Refinery 29. Pinkett Smith, who is married to actor Will Smith, wore a wig while filming an episode of TV drama Gotham. “It was really fun, but I enjoyed it most when I didn’t have to be in the wig,” she said. “In order to make it realistic, they put us in wigs, but I was like: ‘Can I wear it without the wig? Please let me wear it without the wig?’ And they were like, ‘No, you have to wear the wig.'”