Greg Grunberg Reveals Why He Is Suddenly Bald After Surgery in YouTube Video

Greg Grunberg is opening up about his recent post-surgery hair loss.

The Heroes and Felicity actor, 58, shared a video on his Talk About It YouTube channel on Wednesday, May 7, addressing his sudden change in appearance. In the video — titled “What’s Happening to Me?” — he revealed he has been diagnosed with alopecia, an autoimmune disease that attacks the body’s hair follicles, per the Cleveland Clinic.

“First of all, I want to thank everybody who’s, like, asking if I’m okay, you know, ‘What’s going on? I saw pictures of you, you have no hair, what’s happening?’ Well, this is what’s happening,” Grunberg said in the video.

He then removed his Talk About It hat to reveal his hairless head. “I, all of a sudden, got alopecia, and I knew nothing about it. I’m still learning about it,” he continued.

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“It would be hypocritical of me not to talk about it. I mean, this is what we do. This is what we encourage people to do,” he added, referring to the mission of his channel, which aims to generate awareness about important issues and causes.

“Don’t be ashamed of anything that happens,” he reminded his viewers, adding, “Everybody’s got something.”

Grunberg also said he believes his condition was activated after he underwent knee replacement surgery in October.

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“I think it shocked the alopecia into, you know, actually presenting itself,” said the actor, who shared that he also has the thyroid condition Hashimoto’s disease. “I think I probably had it dormant in my body for a long time.”

Despite the recent diagnosis, Grunberg is maintaining a positive outlook.

“What I’ve learned in this immediate, you know, just doing the Googling and the searching and going on all these chat groups and everything, is millions of people have this,” the Alias actor said. “And I look good! I mean, I’m lucky, all right? I look good.”

“All my tests are coming back negative, my numbers are down, I’m eating right, I’m exercising, I’m doing all the right stuff,” he added.

“No need to worry, everything is good,” he concluded, adding, “Thank you so much for all of your concern and your questions. It’s alopecia and a lot of people have it and a lot of people — most people — live well with it, so that’s what I’m doing. Getting ahead of it.”

Grunberg isn’t the only celebrity to open up about having alopecia in recent years. Jada Pinkett Smith revealed she has the disease in 2018, discussing her experience on an episode of Red Table Talk. 

Riverdale star Lili Reinhart has also shared that she lives with the condition, posting about her diagnosis in a January TikTok video, in which she can be seen undergoing red light therapy.

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According to the Cleveland Clinic, approximately 7 million people in the United States have alopecia, which can present in several different forms. Some with the condition experience patchy hair loss confined to the scalp, while others experience total hair loss all over the body. 

The Clinic notes that a person is more likely to develop alopecia if there is a family history of the condition or if family members have other autoimmune diseases like lupus or thyroid disease.

While there is no cure for alopecia, there are medications that can help, and in some cases, the condition goes into remission, per the clinic.