Gabrielle Union's Hair Loss Due To Perimenopause Impacted More Than Just Her Health

It's not often that celebrities get the chance to open up about the early stages of menopause. However, actor Gabrielle Union decided that it was time to go there. In a 2023 interview with People, she got candid about what it was like to experience symptoms of perimenopause at the age of 37. 

As Union and countless other celebrities who have been through it know, there are plenty of odd things your body goes through during this transitional period. There can be major changes in your skin during menopause, but the "Bring It On" star started to lose something even more important to her: her hair. She told People, "All of it can feel very isolating and you can feel like less of a woman, especially as a Black woman where our hair is our crown. There's literally the CROWN Act and I'm like, 'Uh, my crown looks more like a barrette at this moment.'"

While Union admitted to experiencing other perimenopause symptoms, this felt like the biggest loss, not just physically but emotionally, too. As a celebrity with lots of eyes on her regularly, she admitted that the transition hit her like a ton of bricks. It was hard to accept that this was her new reality, particularly as the changes with her scalp and hair made her feel unlike herself. But, once she was able to process her feelings, she found a new sense of purpose — helping others feel less alone when going through this transition. She added in the same interview, "The more we talk about it, the more we are in community with one another, the more we share resources, we're all literally in this together."

While we're constantly inspired by Gabrielle Union's beauty choices (seriously, her sky-blue nails are so quintessentially summer), she's admitted to hitting bumps in the road when it comes to her appearance and self-esteem. In a 2020 interview with Vogue, she shared that her hair journey has carried on for her entire life. She even admitted to relaxing her strands when she was young without positive results. "I always felt like my scalp was betraying me when it would start to itch and burn ... That's where it all began, this really dysfunctional relationship with beauty and self-esteem and value and worth and wanting to be chosen," she said.

Her haircare brand Flawless by Gabrielle Union was also born of her deeply personal experiences as a Black woman in the film industry. She told Allure in a 2017 interview about the frustration that led up to its creation. "Through my time in Hollywood, I have been in a thousand different situations where the people who work in glam just had no idea how to deal with textured hair," she shared. 

Needless to say, Union has been through many different stages when it comes to the topic self-love. While all of that must have been challenging to deal with, she came out on the other side — even after experiencing hair loss during perimenopause. She shared in the same Vogue interview that despite the ups and downs of her hair journey, she has learned the art of self-love and confidence. That clearly shows from the outside; to us, she's even joined the club of celebs that never miss with their signature style.