Amy Schumer continues to shed light on her real-life struggle with trichotillomania after decades of keeping it private.
The comedian spoke about the condition, which causes people to have a compulsive urge to pull out their hair, during an interview on “The Howard Stern Show” last week.
“When I was 13 I pulled out so much hair that I needed to get a wig and wear a wig to school,” Schumer said. She called the experience “humiliating” and said it left her feeling “ugly and unlovable” as she had “big bald spots.”
Despite grappling with the condition, the actor said she didn’t really understand the core of the problem.
“I thought I was OK. I didn’t realize that I was not OK and the hair pulling was a symptom of that,” the “Life & Beth” star explained. “I would not even realize I did it and just look down and there would be a pile of hair.”
Schumer said both of her parents were concerned about the condition and her mother “was especially just horrified by and upset by it.”
“She would help me do my hair before school every morning, and she would be crying while she helped me with my hair,” the actor added, as she began to get emotional.
“It’s been my big secret, you know,” Schumer continued. “I have so much shame about it. I really just wanted to try to let go of it and accept it about myself, and this was part of that.”
Schumer said she still pulls her hair and has “probably half the amount of hair that I should have.” Luckily, extensions help her stay on camera, she said.
“I’m lucky that extensions have become so normalized,” she said. “Every woman you see on camera in any movie is wearing a wig or has a lot of added hair. That’s just how it works in the business. It’s not even strange ― I used to be embarrassed.”
While Schumer is consistently candid with her audience, she revealed that she has trichotillomania in March of this year, after integrating it into her new Hulu show, “Life & Beth.”
“I think everybody has a big secret and that’s mine,” the actor told The Hollywood Reporter last month. “And I’m proud that my big secret only hurts me but it’s been what I’ve carried so much shame about for so long.”