2024-12-27T01:00:52-0600

The former talk show host and actress appeared live on "Good Morning America" Wednesday, sporting a new look. "It was such a right of passage last year taking the leap of faith to shave my head, and my hair, thankfully, has grown back," Lake said. "And I learned so much through the process of really letting go of something that had been really bothering me for decades." On Jan. 3, 2020, Lake opened up to Robin Roberts about the hair loss condition she was experiencing in secret, which she described as "debilitating, embarrassing, painful, scary, depressing, [and] lonely." It was the first time she ever discussed it publicly. Lake, who took third place in the 13th season of "Dancing With the Stars," explained on Facebook that when she starred in "Hairspray" in 1988, her hair was damaged to the point of no return. Lake had also blamed her career as a public figure, hormones, crash dieting, weight fluctuations and genetics for the hair loss. She said she tried a hair treatment and wore hair extensions as remedies. "I've been to many doctors, gotten steroid shots in my head, taking all the supplements and then some," Lake wrote on Facebook. "My hair would recover and then shed again. It was maddening." Ricki Lake on Nov. 16, 2019 in London. Lake said sharing her situation was one of the hardest things she's ever had to do, recently opening up to People magazine about how difficult it was. https://cutt.ly/GkiYij7