Jada Pinkett Smith Says She Struggles with How Her Alopecia 'Comes and Goes': 'It's Stressful'

For the first time since the Academy Awards, Jada Pinkett Smith is speaking out about her experience with alopecia.

The Matrix actress, 50, has long been open about dealing with the skin condition, which affects more than 6 million Americans and can leave people with patchy bald spots or the complete loss of all hair. But after this year's Academy Awards — when comedian Chris Rock made a joke about her shaved head and Pinkett Smith's husband Will Smith walked up to Rock and "smacked" him across the face — she decided to dedicate an episode of Red Table Talk to alopecia.

"Considering what I've been through with my own health and what happened at the Oscars, thousands have reached out to me with their stories," she said in the latest episode, airing Wednesday. "I'm using this moment to give our alopecia family an opportunity to talk about what it's like to have this condition, and to inform people about what alopecia actually is."

Pinkett Smith said that she's struggled at times to accept the hair loss that comes with the autoimmune disorder.

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"It's so much shame around alopecia and when you go bald, and you don't have a choice," she said. "I think the part that makes it the most difficult for me is that it comes and goes. You're going through a spout of something and you have to shave your head, because it's falling out."

Pinkett Smith's mom, Adrienne Banfield-Norris, added that the actress' alopecia "is always so spotty."

"Yeah," Pinkett Smith agreed, "it's stressful because a patch grows and then another patch comes out, and that gives me a lot of anxiety. 'Oh, what's my hair going to look like today?' "

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In order to raise futher awareness of the condition, Pinkett Smith, along with her daughter Willow Smith and Banfield-Norris, spoke with other people with alopecia, doctors who specialize in the condition and Niki Ball, whose daughter Rio had alopecia and died by suicide in March at age 12 after struggling with severe bullying.

"One of the reasons I thought this show was really important was because I had so much outreach from people who suffer from alopecia, have children who suffer from alopecia, and they don't talk about it because there's so much shame around it," Pinkett Smith said. "There's so many people walking around that have alopecia that we don't even know."

"I felt like it was so important to just allow the alopecia community, our brothers and sisters, to tell their story. I think that people don't understand what alopecia is and they don't understand the effects of it."

Pinkett Smith said she's learned to embrace the condition.

"I feel like I'm part of such a beautiful tribe. The alopecia community is such a beautiful, amazing tribe," she said. "I feel like I have this family that beautiful Rio is a part of."