Wearing hair for the first time in 13 years, tearful Gail Porter shows off her new wig
HER bald head has been familiar to viewers since she lost her hair 13 years ago. And in all the time since she started suffering from alopecia, Gail Porter has refused to cover it up.
But yesterday she fought off tears as she made a first appearance in her new blonde wig.
The television presenter, 47, stepped out to cheers from the audience on ITV’s Loose Women.
Welling up, Miss Porter told the show’s panellists: ‘I said, “I’m definitely not going to cry because I’ve got good make-up on!” It feels really nice but really weird.
‘I’m quite a tearful person normally, I felt really nervous, I was worried about your reactions and what people think.’
Flicking the blonde locks, which included a plait, she said: ‘I keep wanting to do this all the time.’
Miss Porter said she gasped when she saw the wig for the first time, adding that ‘it reminds me of being young’.
The former Top Of The Pops presenter, who appeared on Celebrity Big Brother in 2015, had previously resisted wearing a hat or a wig to cover her baldness, saying she wanted to raise awareness about alopecia. She announced on Loose Women in June that she had decided to wear a wig occasionally. Asked on the show yesterday whether she felt pressure to stay bald to inspire others, Miss Porter said: ‘I think I’ll always be bald half the week.
‘I don’t know when I’ll wear this. Maybe go out for dinner or something. I enjoy feeling bald, I understand what you’re saying, I want people to be aware you have a choice. It’s beginning to feel normal now.
‘It’s not just for people with alopecia... [there is] cancer, people lose their hair for all different reasons. If they can go bald, that’s brilliant, I might take this off afterwards and go shopping in Westfield. I might have it in my handbag, have the option.
‘I’m used to being bald. This is fun. People have got wardrobes, you can put your hair up... I can take mine off.. I can put a different colour on.’
Her teenage daughter Honey told her she looks ‘lovely’ in the wig, she said.
Edinburgh-born Miss Porter presented several TV shows for young people in the 1990s, as well as Channel 4’s The Big Breakfast.
In the late 1990s she modelled for men’s magazines such as FHM. A nude photograph of her was projected on to the Houses of Parliament in a magazine stunt.
She developed alopecia in 2005 following her divorce from Toploader guitarist Dan Hipgrave. Her hair began to grow back in patches but started to fall out again in 2010.
She has also been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.