A woman who hid her alopecia for 17 years said she felt more confident going out without a wig after the Oscars controversy raised awareness of the condition.
Laura Mathias, 30, from Manningtree, Essex, England, said she hoped other bald people could take a stand in defiance of comedian Chris Rock’s joke.
“The positive thing about this horrible incident is that a lot more people know about alopecia,” she said.
“I’m usually very anxious to go out without a wig.”
“But now I feel like enough people know about the condition and wouldn’t assume I have cancer or some other disease, and wouldn’t look at me with pity.”
The video of Will Smith slapping Chris Rock in the face on stage at the Oscars has been viewed millions of times and has generated multiple debates about the condition.
The comedian made a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, who had shaved her head because of alopecia. The condition is estimated to affect at least 65,000 people in the UK alone.
Mathias said in an Instagram post, where she recounts her life with alopecia, that the actor’s violence was not acceptable.
She said Will Smith did the right thing by making it clear that making fun of his wife’s hair loss was inappropriate, but she wished he had done it with words.
“While this was a really horrible incident, it was huge for the alopecia community. I’m really happy to see that finally people are asking ‘what is alopecia?'”
“I was so proud to see how glamorous Jada looked and for the fact that she responded to the joke with just one look, she really walked away from this episode with a lot of dignity,” she said.
Mathias was 12 years old when he was diagnosed, and doctors said the hair loss was caused by the stress of her parents’ divorce.
She stopped going to school for six months because she was embarrassed and decided to buy a wig when she returned to school.
“I wore a wig for 17 years”
She couldn’t exercise or go to amusement parks for fear the wig would fall off, and she had a panic attack while getting ready for a wedding.
During the pandemic lockdown, she decided to appear in public without her wig for the first time.
“I didn’t take it off for 17 years, but the pandemic changed things for me,” she said.
“I started sharing pictures online without my wig, but being completely honest I felt more confident posting pictures without it than going to stores. Now I hope to change that.”
She said the idea of ​​interacting every day as a bald woman still scares her, but that she is working on the idea.
“I’ve wasted a lot of my life getting anxious about this,” she said.
“That joke could have ruined the confidence of many, but it actually had the opposite effect. People aren’t going to stare at us when more of us go out without our wigs.”
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