Alyssa Milano is literally tearing her hair out over Covid-19. Is she really that desperate for attention?

Guy Birchall, British journalist covering current affairs, politics and free speech issues. Recently published in The Sun and Spiked Online.

10 Aug, 2020 15:35 / Updated 4 years ago

Former ‘Charmed’ actress Alyssa Milano has been posting a series of increasingly bizarre outbursts online, most recently about how much hair she is “losing” due to the virus.

Alyssa Milano does not seem to be handling the Covid-19 outbreak well. Her latest strange offering is a video, just over a minute and a half in length, showing the actress in a bathroom, apparently having just showered. She then proceeds to brush her wet locks, seemingly yanking quite hard through the knots, and then shows us the strands of hair that come out after she’s done. At the end of the video she says, “wear a damn mask,” before turning off the camera.

I am by no means a hair expert; my experience in the field basically consist of having some on my head. But even I know that it is ill-advised to aggressively run a rake through your damp barnet. Wet, recently washed hair is more fragile, making it far more likely to end up coming out if you yank a brush through it having just got out of the shower. I may be wrong, but I’m guessing Ms Milano is also aware of this. It also should be noted that she isn’t removing huge clumps of hair, just a few strands, and from the way she is brushing it looks more like they have been pulled out than falling out.

One also wonders if Ms Milano is a Cosmopolitan reader. I’m going to guess that she may well be, as she has graced the cover on more than one occasion and has written articles for the magazine in the past. I wonder this because three days ago, Cosmo published an article about why women might be losing more hair than normal due to the Covid-19 outbreak. One can’t be certain that this is what has caused the actress’ newfound concern for her mane, but it doesn’t seem outlandish to suggest that it might. Interestingly, the Cosmo article is at pains to point out that hair loss is probably not caused by having the virus, and is far more likely to be the result of stress and washing hair less frequently. 

Alyssa Milano’s latest post may well be motivated by genuine concern, but a brief look into her recent past shows that she seems to have jacked in her acting career to become a professional bandwagon-jumper. No right-on issue has passed her by since around 2016. After suddenly becoming relevant again following the #MeToo movement, the actress has piped up on all sorts of issues. She has publicly endorsed a huge number of Democratic candidates for office, frequently in places to which she has hardly any personal ties. She has backed Bernie, Hillary and now Joe Biden for the presidency, spoken at women’s marches and even, bafflingly, appeared in the public gallery during Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing.   

It is, therefore, unsurprising that she has been so vocal about Covid-19. Milano has documented her believing she had the virus, and having three tests come back negative, only to reportedly later test positive for antibodies. She was very quick to start advocating for mask-wearing, despite being mocked for the crocheted face covering she first appeared with, which contained visible holes. Now her hair loss video seems to be her latest bid for relevance dressed up as some kind of public service. 

One could say that this is an uncharitable reading of Milano’s intervention into the Covid-19 debate, but some of her recent tweets suggest that this is more about wanting attention than raising awareness. Last month,apropos of nothing, she tweeted: “We live in a world WHERE JOE ROGAN’s PODCAST HAS TRIPLE THE LISTENERS AS MINE!! Dear god.”

I’m not sure if Alyssa is aware of this, but Joe Rogan has the most successful podcast on the planet and has been working on it for over a decade at this point. Milano’s ‘Sorry Not Sorry’ podcast, by contrast, has barely been going for a year. This is like complaining that Usain Bolt is still faster than you even though you took up running a month ago. I had no idea Milano had a podcast until she bemoaned its apparent lack of success, and it is such an irrelevance that, as yet, its existence isn’t even mentioned on her Wikipedia page

I’m sure Alyssa Milano won’t appreciate being dismissed as just another attention-seeking actress, but I’m afraid that’s exactly what she is.

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