Sandra Bullock Reveals Why Her Hair Started Falling Out

Sandra Bullock is opening up about the toll that stressful situations have taken on her body in a new episode of Red Table Talk. During her conversation with hosts Jada Pinkett Smith, Willow Smith, and Adrienne Banfield-Norris, the actress said she was even afraid she might die.

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Health Scares And A Break-In

Bullock discussed the stressful events that led to her body breaking down. First, her son Louis had a grand mal seizure, which was so bad she thought he had died. “Two days later, I pulled my hair tight, went to the Academy Awards, pulled it too tight,” she shared. “Day later, I was bitten by a poisonous spider. My hair starts falling out. I have alopecia spots everywhere. I’m like, ‘What the hell?'”

The last straw was in 2014, when a stalker broke into Bullock’s home while she was inside. “I’m in the closet going, ‘This doesn’t end well.’ I’m in the closet, [which is] not gonna help,” she said. “It was the one night that Louis wasn’t with me. It was the one night that our nanny goes, ‘Let me just take him to my apartment which is up the street because you’re going to be out late.’ ” She said she “wasn’t the same” after the terrifying break-in, and turned to eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy to heal.

Bullock shared a revelation she had during one of her therapy sessions: “When I got out of it, I realized I have surrounded myself often with unsafe people and situations and put myself there….I have no one else to blame but myself…because that was the most familiar feeling I had.”

‘If I Don’t Pull It Together, I’m Going To Die’

She continued, “In that EMDR journey, I had to take ownership of everything that I bought into my world because it felt comfortable and realized it no longer had a place.” After her hair started falling out, Bullock realized she needed to make a change.

“I literally had to take inventory, going, ‘If I don’t pull it together, I’m going to die. Something is going to happen to my body that I can’t control’ – and I can control almost everything – so EMDR, I sought counsel, and I would seek it again,” the actress said.

She credits her children as the main motivation for her to deal with her health and stress issues. Her children, Louis and Laila, were adopted in 2010 and 2015, respectively. “It was my children who showed me that unless I pull it together right now, I’m not going to be around to have the moments that I want to have,” Bullock said.