Cynthia Erivo Gave Us Her Advice for Women Who Want to Go Bald

On the eve of the New York City premiere of Wicked: For Good, Cynthia Erivo spoke with Joanna Coles and Sam Escobar of The Looker for a conversation that spanned skincare tricks, her signature bald style, and the 38-year-old performer’s devotion to upholding her physical and emotional well-being.

Throughout the interview, a clear throughline emerged: in every aspect of her routine, Cynthia Erivo is one of the most disciplined performers in Hollywood. Her commitment to wellness is essential when Erivo is constantly on the move, because “the things I can keep control of are [what] I put in my body and the things I do to my body.”

Lately, this attentive approach is more critical than ever. The Wicked films' ambitious production schedule may have nabbed all the headlines, but the subsequent press cycles—including a disturbing incident in which Erivo leapt to defend co-star Ariana Grande from a fan—have also taken their toll. (Shortly after this interview, Erivo and Grande announced the pair would not be doing red carpet interviews due to Erivo losing her voice.) Still, Erivo shows no signs of slowing down and hinted at exciting projects in the works.

Buzzed and Beautiful

The London-born actress is famous for her shaved head—a look she gradually adopted after years of shorter and shorter lengths. Erivo credits Coles, the Daily Beast’s chief creative and content officer, for partly catalyzing her journey when the pair first met 10-plus years ago through a friend.

“You told me to go platinum!” Erivo said to Coles. And platinum she went. But the platinum shade soon turned to white, which evolved into silver. Erivo eventually “wanted to just cut it off...until I ended up playing this role [as Elphaba] that needed me to cut my hair really, really short.”

While her initial transformation was born of practical purposes—having no hair made Erivo’s all-green Wicked makeup far easier to apply during the production of the first film—she quickly realized that this was more than a convenient cut.

“[Being bald is] the most comfortable I’ve ever felt,” Erivo told The Looker. “It allows me to really play when it comes to fashion and my jewelry and my makeup, I think having no hair just feels really freeing.”

If there’s anyone to take confidence tips from, it’s Cynthia Erivo. Her talents have made her a success across Broadway, the big screen, and television, and earned her a Tony, Emmy, and Grammy for her genre-spanning performances. So, what’s this superstar’s advice for women who want to copy her signature look but are afraid their faces will be front and center for all to see?

“Everyone is beautiful the way they are,” Erivo said. “You were born with no hair. Everyone was born without it, and then it grew in. And you were still loved.”

“One of the reasons I cut my hair was because I wanted my face front and center,” she told The Looker. “What a beautiful thing—that the first thing we see is your face, before anything else. If that’s the thing that you’re afraid of, please don’t. It’s your face to be proud of.”

No Hair, Meticulous Care

Now, Erivo shaves her own head, using an electric clipper to do so. (“If I wet-shave, I end up with bumps, like ingrown hairs.”) Erivo is diligent with her maintenance, typically buzzing her hair every three days, though she sometimes goes up to five days between shaves.

As one of Hollywood’s most sought-after celebrities, Erivo has access to the industry’s top hairstylists, yet she prefers to do it herself–again, for practical purposes. “My hair’s really strange because it grows in different directions [because] I have a cowlick,” she said. “My hair grows in completely different directions all around my head.”

Aside from doing her own snips, Erivo is rigorous in her scalp care. “Strangely enough, you still have to use shampoo and conditioner, and usually a balm afterward so that the scalp is nourished,” she told The Looker. “If it gets dry, then it’s not fun.”

Simply More just hit shelves on November 18, but Erivo is already being compelled to clarify outside descriptions of her latest written work.

“Some call it an autobiography, but I’m not calling it an autobiography because there’s so much life that is not in the book that is left to be told,” she told The Looker.

Instead, Erivo describes the work as “the stories and [parts] of my life that have taught me things, and the questions I've asked myself—and the questions I'm now asking the reader based on what they get from each chapter." As she shares the things she has learned over her lifetime, she hopes that "maybe the reader can learn something, too."

When asked if there’s anything in the book that might surprise readers, the actress answered affirmatively. “Some of the hardships I’ve been through might surprise people—and some of the way I’ve dealt with things might surprise people,” she said. “I think there’s a lot that people might not know very much about me, and I’m quite honest in [the book].”

When Erivo is at home, her first three actions upon waking are to brush her teeth, get on the treadmill ("somewhere between 30 [minutes] to two hours"), and then hop into her dry, infrared sauna, where she'll sit for around 45 minutes. Erivo also revealed that she travels with a sauna blanket, which she uses for up to 20 minutes at a time.

The actress's sauna sessions double as a meditative time in her day. “When you’re in an infrared sauna, or any sauna, you can’t really do anything except sit," Erivo said, noting that it forces her to hydrate and rest.

When senior editor Sam Escobar asked Erivo about her famously intense Wicked fitness routine, Erivo said, "If my call [time] was maybe 5:30 [a.m.], I'd probably be up at two so I can be on the treadmill for about an hour, hour and a half, and then I would do the sauna blanket," Pilates and strength training were also essential to her exercise program.

Mapping out a movie's production schedule is a painstaking task. For Erivo's portrayal of Elphaba, which required the actress to be on a wire, the timetables were exponentially more complicated. Erivo reached for fast, easy snacks like nuts and berries, and lots of water, though she recalls having to ration her water intake at times to minimize bathroom breaks.

Post-Wicked, Erivo's fitness formula has eased up a little, but the actress still keeps up with a workout schedule any medical practitioner would commend. Though she no longer mandates a 60- to 120-minute treadmill session for herself each morning, she still hits her treadmill for at least 30 minutes daily.

Erivo takes supplements every day, typically going for the gummy versions of her various vitamins. “I wanted to ask my doctor first to make sure that I wasn’t just taking sugar in, and she said that, actually, gummy vitamins are the best because you can absorb them quickly and they work faster," she told The Looker. Naturally, she "started taking them almost religiously...wherever I go, they’re in little baggies.”

Erivo’s daily gummy lineup includes vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin B12, an immunity supplement, a metabolism supplement, a skin supplement, and a multivitamin.

Given her tireless work ethic, it's reasonable to assume Erivo needs plenty of rest. For this, she takes melatonin before bed. “If I’ve had a really full day and I’m wired, I’ll take a strong melatonin," she said. "If not, I’ll take a normal [strength] melatonin.”

"How important is sleep to you?" asked Coles. "I mean, having to get up at 2 in the morning—do you need a certain amount of sleep?"

"I'm not the best sleeper," Erivo confessed, adding that she aims for a nightly minimum of five hours of rest. "I can function on very little sleep. But that’s not necessarily a good thing.”