Viola Davis is one of Hollywood’s most accomplished actresses. But even she struggles with everyday issues.
The “How To Get Away With Murder” star, who has been vocal about her thoughts on being called “less classically beautiful,” recently opened up about her own struggles with beauty.
In the Vulture magazine interview, Davis shared her thoughts on losing half her hair at age 28 to Alopecia Areata and how she would wear a wig everywhere to feel beautiful:
The following is an excerpt from the interview:
On describing black women in media:
“We need to use the same adjectives as we use for any woman. Which could be dangerous, too, but I’ll accept that. Any day.”
When Davis was 28, she lost half her hair to Alopecia Areata.
“I woke up one day and it looked like I had a Mohawk. Big splash of bald on the top of my head,” she says. “I was like, What is this? Until I found out it was stress related. That’s how I internalized it. I don’t do that anymore. My favorite saying in the world is, ‘The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.’ I am telling you, I have spent so much of my life not feeling comfortable in my skin. I am just so not there anymore.”
After Alopecia, she wore a wig everywhere.
“I wore a wig in the Jacuzzi. I had a wig I wore around the house. I had a wig that I wore to events. I had a wig that I wore when I worked out. I never showed my natural hair. It was a crutch, not an enhancement … I was so desperate for people to think that I was beautiful. I had to be liberated from that [feeling] to a certain extent.” So at the 2012 Oscars, she exposed her “natural hair.” She still has her wigs; she wears them on Murder, she wears them to photo shoots, she wears them when she doesn’t have time to pick out her hair and get rid of her grays, but she no longer wears them in her everyday life. What matters, she says, is that “it’s an option … when it used to never be an option. I had something to hide.”
Like BlackAmericaWeb.com on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.
(Photo Source: AP)
