Melanie Sykes has proudly shown off her shaved head in a new modelling shoot, her first since going public with her battle against alopecia. The TV presenter, 55, cut her hair earlier this summer after revealing the condition had progressed significantly, and in June debuted her new look on Instagram with the caption 'Thank God I can laugh.'
Campaign in Manchester
The star took to the streets of Manchester to model a new sunglasses campaign for Cubitts, posing in the Northern Quarter with her head turned to the side to display her shaved head, wearing a pair of Cubitts sunnies and a black leather jacket. Other pictures showed her grinning from ear to ear, including a close-up of her face.
She also changed into a white suit and green shirt, lifting her face towards the sun, and brandished several pairs of sunglasses. In one image, she adopted a more serious pose with her collar turned up against the breeze.
Open about her health
The shoot comes after Melanie spoke openly about her health. Prior to shaving her head, she said: "I'm two-thirds bald, really. Every time I say I'm bald I laugh, I don't know why… Thank God I can laugh."
When she revealed she had the condition, she explained: "I've got an autoimmune condition, I am losing my hair, I keep having crazy inflammation all over and I am working on healing." She added that she had to step back from a meditation teacher training course, saying "I was too ill to finish it like. The last two days of it I couldn’t do. It’s meditation teacher training, I don’t necessarily want to teach, but I can do…," and noted, "Mostly I’ve been living a very, very very spiritual existence."
Alopecia explained
There are several types of alopecia. Alopecia areata is the most common and is an autoimmune condition causing sudden hair loss on the scalp and other parts of the body, including eyebrows and eyelashes, when certain immune cells mistakenly attack hair follicles. It can also cause inflammation, itching or burning along the scalp, though this is less common.
Anyone can develop alopecia, but it is more commonly diagnosed before age 40 and is often linked to other autoimmune conditions. Stress, genetics and family history are also thought to play a role, although the exact cause is not always clear.
Previous statements
Melanie first spoke publicly about her diagnosis last year. She said she developed an irregular heartbeat and “rapid” hair loss after being “harassed” when allegations surfaced against TV chef Gino D’Acampo, with whom she worked on the ITV series Let’s Do Lunch with Gino and Mel from 2011 to 2014.
"I went into the New Year with so much energy. I’ve slowed things down because I got a heart problem, which I developed during the whole Gino D’Acampo bull**** that happened in the news," she said in a video. "And suddenly, the stress levels in my life shot up because I left that industry years ago but it won’t leave me alone."
