The actress revealed on Wednesday (Jan. 11) that she suffers with alopecia—an autoimmune disorder that may cause severe hair loss, according to WebMD—and discussed how she manages the condition. The High School Musical alum, who welcomed her daughter Jupiter in 2021 with husband Christopher French, said that she noticed strands falling out a few months earlier, likening the health situation to the hair loss she dealt with years ago while handling intense stress. “Alopecia and hair loss are fairly common, but a lot of people feel embarrassed to talk about these issues,” Tisdale wrote in a post on her lifestyle and wellness blog Frenshe. “Any type of hair loss can affect your self-esteem, especially if you feel like you’re the only one going through it. That’s why I want to talk about it openly — because it’s nothing to be ashamed of. Sometimes it’s connected to hormones, other times to heredity, and for me, it’s connected to stress overload.” The 37-year-old continued in the entry entitled “How I’m Dealing With Alopecia,” explaining how she has learned to manage her condition and encouraging others to not let “worry take over.” She mentioned noticing her previous anxiety related to the alopecia getting “worse” only deepened her stress, and in turn, her symptoms. “When I focused on the present and accepted what was happening, I was then ready to make a plan to address my hair loss,” she wrote. In addition to shifting focus away from worry, Tisdale listed managing stress as another key to coping with the medical condition. She attributed meditation and self-care rituals as practices that helped lower her stress levels. She also included something else that worked for her is switching up her diet, writing, “Eating with a focus on gut health also helps me thrive. Whatever your self-care plan may be, embrace it.” The former Disney actress has opened up in the past about hair loss treatments she’s received to help restore her tresses, including platelet-rich plasma (PRP) treatment, which involves injecting platelets from one’s blood back into the scalp. “It’s expensive and it is certainly not the most pleasant experience — it involves microneedling the scalp, after all — but it made my hair grow back amazingly fast, and research shows that it works,” she said, adding that it is perfectly OK to embrace hair loss and sport whatever makes you comfortable, whether it be a wig or a hairless head. Jada Pinkett Smith is another star who has notably been transparent about her alopecia journey, opening up about the condition on Red Table Talk and choosing to rock a fierce shaved-head look on many occasions. Hopefully we’ll continue to see more people embracing their unique journeys and sharing experiences with common health conditions in the future!
