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Internet sleuths doubt Jada Pinkett Smith's alopecia claim, saying she just has very short hair

Will Smith shocked the world by slapping Chris Rock on stage at the Oscars on Sunday for poking fun at his wife Jada Pinkett Smith's shaved head

Will Smith shocked the world when he slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars on Sunday, March 27, for poking fun at his wife Jada Pinkett Smith's shaved head, which she says is due to alopecia. However, in the aftermath of the Oscars storm, internet sleuths appear to be casting doubts on that claim.

Rock was on stage at the 94th Academy Awards held at Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday, March 27, to present the award for Best Documentary Film when he joked that Jada could star in "G.I. Jane 2". This prompted her husband to storm onto the stage, slap the comic in the face, before walking back to his seat. "Keep my wife's name out of your f**king mouth," Smith yelled at Rock after taking his seat. He later apologized for his actions. However, some online are wondering whether Jada really suffers from the dreaded autoimmune condition.

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It all started when conservative author Sandy Lee Vincent, who goes by the name 'Dr. Interracial' on Twitter, shared a collage of two photos showing alleged alopecia cases. The first photo, he wrote, was of someone who had "alopecia and no hair." The other photo was of Jada Pinkett Smith, who he claimed had "a short haircut" but showed no signs of alopecia. "The person on the left has alopecia & no hair. The person on the right has a short haircut," Vincent wrote.

This sparked a wave of comments, with many thanking the author for pointing it out and offering their own experiences of people with alopecia. "Ok, I’m glad you are saying this. Because I have wondered if she was being honest about having it. There was a little girl the same age as my daughter in our church. And when she had episodes of alopecia she looked like the picture on the left," one tweeted.

"I am a cosmetologist. That is the 1st thing I noticed about her," another wrote.

"I’m a hairdresser and I said the same thing to my husband and daughter," a user added.

"My friend had alopecia due to Lupus & at her worst, no hair-just little patchy tuffs here & there, nothing uniform. She looked like the photo on the left. Don’t see any patchy spots with JPS’s hair. Not saying she doesn’t have it, but the best-looking alopecia patient I’ve seen yet," someone else offered.

"Agreed. Known a man my whole life who has alopecia. No eyebrows. No eyelashes. Not one speck of hair on his scalp. Watched a kid recently get it and go through it. End result is the same. Not one piece of hair was left on his head. She does not have alopecia," one commented.

"THANK YOU! I had never seen an alopecia sufferer with such a thick head of stubble, beautiful thick eyebrows, & eyelashes before. So glad you posted this photo, so people understand the difference between a lie & the real thing," another chimed in. 

That said, it's worth noting that Jada has spoken out about her alopecia hair loss on several occasions. She spoke about her experience with the disorder in an Instagram video in December, pointing out a line that had developed around her scalp as a result of the disorder.

"Now at this point, I can only laugh," the actor admitted. "Y'all know I’ve been struggling with alopecia and just all of a sudden one day, look at this line right here. Look at that. So it just showed up like that and this is going to be a little bit more difficult for me to hide." Jada remarked at the time that she had opted to speak about the issue "so y'all are not to ask any questions" and so that no one would think she had undergone "brain surgery."

Jada originally revealed she had alopecia in 2018 during an episode of Red Table Talk, where she mentioned losing "handfuls of hair." The actor admitted at the time that the hair loss was "terrifying" when it initially began. "And I'll tell you it was terrifying when it first started. I was in the shower one day and then just handfuls of hair, just in my hands, and I was like: 'Oh my God am I going bald?'" she explained. "It was one of those times in my life when I was literally shaking with fear."

According to the American Academy of Dermatology, alopecia is a disorder that occurs when the body destroys its own hair follicles, resulting in hair loss anywhere on parts of the body.