Hair Loss At Any Age

Who will ever forget the scene in 2010 when a strong wind lifted strands of Naomi Campbell’s weave and revealed a receding hairline? Hair loss is more common than we let on...

- Nokuthula Khanyile

It is strangely comforting for us to know that we are not the only ones suffering from hair loss. Even celebrities are not immune. In the past, former supermodels Naomi Campbell and Tyra Banks, talk show host Wendy Williams and even actress Jada Pinkett Smith, have all openly spoken about the trouble they experienced with their hair. Luckily for the rest of us, we don’t get even a taste of the public scrutiny and speculation Campbell suffered.

She finally broke her silence in 2017 and revealed that she was suffering from a severe case of traction alopecia, caused by years of wearing weaves and tight hairstyles that constantly pulled on the hair follicles. Alopecia – commonly called injibhabha or njipsy – is, according to healthline.com, a condition in which hair is lost from some or all areas of the body.

THE COMPLEXITY OF ALOPECIA

Last year, South African actress Gail Mabalane opened up about her hair loss journey after being diagnosed with alopecia. In an Instagram post last March, Mabalane says, “A few months ago, I went to the salon for a routine hair wash. To my shock, after my wash, a big chunk of my hair was gone. Central centrifugal cicatricial alopecia was the diagnosis. Simply put… a very common cause of alopecia or hair loss in black women.”

But, what is the leading source of hair loss in black women?

According to Dr. Kuda Mupawose, founder of hair brand Feso Africa, “a lack of knowledge and wrong handling of our hair is the biggest cause of hair loss. It’s the things that we are doing to our hair,” she says.