Melanie Sykes has secured her first major modelling campaign since shaving her head following her struggle with alopecia. The television presenter, 55, is fronting a new campaign for eyewear brand Cubitts, with the pictures celebrating her natural appearance.
Campaign details
Photographed by Niall Hodson, the campaign sees Melanie return to her hometown of Manchester, posing at various locations including the Northern Quarter, the Toast Rack building and the streets of Ashton-under-Lyne, where both she and the photographer grew up.
It arrives just weeks after she proudly unveiled her completely shaved head on Instagram, following months of hair loss brought on by alopecia. Alongside a beaming selfie, Melanie simply wrote: "Loss + Gain = Life."
Health journey
The presenter has been remarkably open about her health journey and recently disclosed the full extent of her hair loss. Speaking to fans, 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."
Melanie has previously explained that she is living with an autoimmune condition while managing a number of health concerns. She said: "I've got an autoimmune condition, I am losing my hair, I keep having crazy inflammation all over and I am working on healing."
Personal revelations
The former television personality also disclosed that she had been compelled to step back from completing a meditation teacher training course after falling ill. "I was too ill to finish it. 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... Mostly I've been living a very, very, very spiritual existence," she explained.
Last month, Melanie revealed her hair had begun falling out considerably faster following more than a year of progressive hair loss. She disclosed that she had been experimenting with wigs but had additionally abandoned headscarves as she wished to expose her scalp to sunlight in the hope of stimulating hair regrowth.
Melanie first addressed her alopecia diagnosis publicly last year, also revealing she had developed an irregular heartbeat. She claimed the condition deteriorated during the period when allegations involving TV chef Gino D'Acampo, whom she previously worked alongside on Let's Do Lunch with Gino and Mel, entered the public domain.
"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 s*** that happened in the news," she said at the time. "And suddenly, the stress levels in my life shot up because I left that industry years ago but it won't leave me alone."
