Celebrity Interior Designer Redefines Her Image after Hair Loss

by Alexandra Kilpatrick

After graduating from Brown University and Parsons, Sheila Bridges became a star interior designer, whose clients ranged from entertainers to doctors to a former President and whose talents brought her magazine spreads, a television show and a store in upstate New York.

In 2004, the celebrity designer began experiencing significant hair loss from the autoimmune disorder alopecia. Bridges shared her story both in her new memoir The Bald Mermaid and with NPR’s Tell Me More host Michael Martin.

Unexpected Hair Loss

Bridges first noticed her hair loss during the fourth season of her television show Sheila Bridges: Designer Living.

“I remember one day specifically, I was supposed to be taping an episode of my show,” Bridges recalls to NPR, “and when I washed my hair in the morning, the front section kind of came out in my hand… And it was one of those things that there was going to be no way that we could disguise it.

“Something that was very, very private was sort of happening to me in a very public way. And while I used wigs and hairpieces during that time frame – because of the continuity of the show, which I had to do – it wasn’t something I really wanted to do. And everyone who knew me, knew that when I was done taping, the wig came off and I had shaved my head. And underneath it, you know, I was experiencing a tremendous sense of shame, and of loss, and it was just a very, very challenging time for me personally.”

Bridges noted the timing of losing her hair and her show around the same time.

“It seemed kind of odd that when I did lose my hair and I did make a decision that I didn’t want to wear a wig anymore, I could never get back on television again,” Bridges told NPR. “So again, the timing of it seemed a little odd. Obviously I can’t say for sure, but I think that there is an idea that’s put forth in the media about what we should look like as women.

“And certainly, rarely do you see women who have shaved their heads, women who are bald, in the media unless of course they have undergone chemo or they’re sick, or I think when Britney Spears shaved her head, then we’re certifiably crazy or something in order to do something like that.”

Bald Aliens and Public Misconceptions

Of public reactions to her hair loss, Bridges comments that most people make assumptions that she is undergoing treatment for cancer.

“I had a very in-depth conversation with someone who – she told me how I looked just like an alien on Star Trek,” Bridges admits to NPR. “And again I thought, ‘Wow this is incredible!’ No longer am I actually a person or a woman, I am now sort of outer worldly, because I don’t have hair on my head. And at the end of the day, I don’t really want to be compared to aliens.

“I think the majority of commentary that I get, of course, has to do with this assumption that I have cancer… A lot of people assume – they launch into things about chemotherapy of treatment or how I’m doing. And when I tell people that I actually am not undergoing treatment, it’s almost as though I’ve said something offensive, that I’m a part of this cancer club. And that I’m denying the fact that I’m undergoing treatment. And so that for me has just been a little bit twisted. I haven’t been able to figure out why that is, as if almost I’m tricking people.

“My baldness is a trigger for other peoples’ fears, for their insecurities, for some of their feelings possibly about cancer. Maybe they’ve lost someone to cancer. It creates this new set of issues that I never thought would be created. There have been instances when people have just literally walked up to me and touched my head, which I’m not happy about… When you have hair, there’s sort of this natural boundary that we have. And somehow without it, I’ve become kind of more vulnerable.”

She's All Human!

Bridges commented that she aimed to play with the notion of beauty in her aptly named book The Bald Mermaid.

“I’ve always had this fascination with sort of all things aquatic when I was growing up,” Bridges told NPR. “But The Bald Mermaid is about the notion beauty… And throughout sort of folklore and literature and history, mermaids are these beautiful, mysterious, sort of aquatic sirens of the sea who kind of can lure people in and bring them to safety, but also kind of create destruction as well. And I kind of wanted to play with the idea that if women are these sort of powerful, interesting creatures and multilayered – is it still possible to be those things even if you’re bald.

If you or someone you know would like to learn more about hair loss and how to treat it, please feel free to contact our team of representatives today. They will help you locate a hair loss clinic in your area today.