Melanie Sykes has landed her first major modelling campaign since shaving her head, marking a powerful new chapter after opening up about her battle with alopecia.
Campaign in Manchester
The TV presenter, 55, is fronting a new campaign for eyewear brand Cubitts, with the images celebrating her natural look following months of candid updates about her health.
Shot by fellow Mancunian Niall Hodson, the campaign sees Melanie return to her hometown of Manchester, posing in locations including the Northern Quarter, the Grade II-listed Toast Rack building and the streets of Ashton-under-Lyne, where both she and the photographer were born. The campaign marks Melanie's first major fashion shoot since embracing her bald look earlier this summer.
Revealing her shaved head
It comes just weeks after she proudly revealed her completely shaved head on Instagram following months of hair loss caused by alopecia. Alongside a smiling selfie, Melanie simply wrote: "Loss + Gain = Life."
The presenter has been refreshingly honest about her health journey and recently revealed the 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."
Health struggles
Melanie has previously explained that she is living with an autoimmune condition while dealing with a number of health issues.
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."
The former TV favourite also revealed she had been forced to step away from completing a meditation teacher training course after becoming unwell.
"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... Mostly I've been living a very, very very spiritual existence," she explained.
Hair loss and heart condition
Last month, Melanie said her hair had started falling out much more quickly after more than a year of gradual hair loss. She revealed she had been trying wigs but had also ditched headscarves because she wanted to expose her scalp to sunlight in the hope it could encourage hair growth.
Melanie first spoke publicly about her alopecia diagnosis last year, revealing she had also developed an irregular heartbeat.
She claimed the condition worsened during the period when allegations involving TV chef Gino D'Acampo, who she previously worked alongside on Let's Do Lunch with Gino and Mel, became public.
"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."
