Jada Pinkett Smith opens up about her struggles with alopecia

For many people, it was something of a surprise to hear that Jada Pinkett Smith would be returning to the cyberpunk dystopia in a far-flung future in The Matrix Resurrections, but very much so a welcome bit of news.

The actor arguably looks like she hasn’t aged a day in the almost twenty years since her original appearance in the franchise, something for which we can’t say the same thing for her character Niobe as she is noticeably more wizened, relatively, than Keanu Reeves’ Neo or Carrie-Anne Moss’ Trinity in the movie thanks to Hollywood effects makeup.

But the actor is opening up about a real-life, surface-level struggle she’s quietly been dealing with lately: alopecia.

In a candid Instagram post, Pinkett Smith explains that “now at this point, I can only laugh” as she explains she’s been living with the condition which causes patches of hair to fall off her head.

“Just all a sudden, one day, look at this line right here,” she said, pointing to a smooth patch of her crown. “And so it just showed up like that. This is going to be a little bit more difficult to hide.” Check out the post for yourself below.

Pinkett Smith went on to explain she decided to simply tell the world about what she’s been going through, rather than have fans speculating about what’s really going on by dissecting photos and videos ad-nauseum online, which unfortunately does tend to happen at the slightest change of appearances of celebrities.

“I thought I’d just share it so ya’ll not asking any questions, but you know, mama’s going to put some rhinestones in there and I’m just going to make me a little crown,” she said.

Props to Jada Pinkett Smith for bringing to light an issue no doubt many Americans quietly and self-consciously struggle with on a daily basis.