Ricki Lake, 54, Shares the Products She Says Stop ‘Shedding’ and Aid Hair Growth

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• Ricki Lake shares the hair growth products that have helped “tremendously” after her decades-long struggle with hair loss.

• The star swears by Harklinikken’s Balancing Shampoo, Hair Gain Extract, and Hair Mask for “tremendously” helping with her hair regrowth.

• “In so many ways, I feel more youthful than I have in a really long time,” she tells Prevention.

In January 2020, Ricki Lake made the bold decision to shave her head. She revealed that she had been struggling with “debilitating” hair loss for nearly 30 years. Now, more than three years later, the 54-year-old Hairspray star tells Prevention that she’s finally “at peace” in her hair journey. This is, in part, due to three hair growth products that she says have made a big difference: Harklinikken’s Balancing Shampoo, Hair Gain Extract, and Hair Mask.

Balancing Shampoo

Hair Gain Extract

Hair Mask

The actress and television host first noticed that her hair was shedding when she was just 26 years old while filming the 1996 film Mrs. Winterbourne. “I was put on a crash diet for the whole shoot...Three months after I changed my diet dramatically, my hair was shedding,” she recalls. “It was just coming out in clumps in the shower.”

Lake says the entire experience was “super traumatizing,” and impacted her life. “It became an obsession for me, like every time I was in front of a mirror and I see the downlight and I could see my scalp,” she tells Prevention. “I mean, it just was something that was eating at me for many, many years on and off.”

The actress says she tried “everything she could think of” during her decades-long struggle—including popular hair loss treatments like Rogaine, supplements, steroid injections, and even PRP therapy (a treatment that involves injecting your own plasma into the scalp to encourage hair growth)—to no avail. Ultimately, Lake made the “drastic decision” to shave her head in 2020, an act that made her feel “liberated and free” as she described in a candid Instagram post.

It wasn’t too long afterward that she discovered Harklinikken, a Scandinavian hair brand founded by Lars Skjoeth. It was during a consultation at the Harklinikken clinic, that she received her diagnosis of androgenetic alopecia—a common type of hair loss caused by genetics—and was put on a personalized regimen of hair growth products. “Not only did [the treatment] turn my hair around—the shedding stopped—but also, it made my hair as healthy, my scalp as healthy as it could possibly be,” she says.

Now, at 54 years old, Lake is rocking a full head of natural, silky, salt-and-pepper strands (“I think it looks freakin’ cool,” she says)—and she swears it’s all thanks to Harklinikken. “I really love the brand, I’ve never endorsed a product in my entire career—this is the first—but I feel so strongly that it has helped me tremendously,” she says.

So which products does Lake swear by? The star’s daily hair routine starts with washing her hair with the Harklinikken Balancing Shampoo, which she specifically loves for its gentle, mild formula that’s suitable for all hair types.

“It has no fragrance to it, it has no color—it’s just super easy on my scalp,” she says. Formulated to thoroughly cleanse and strengthen hair while balancing the scalp’s pH level, the shampoo also works to soothe scalp irritation and inflammation. The brand says it can even alleviate mild dandruff and mild seborrheic dermatitis.

Lake also uses the Hair Gain Extract, which she applies to her scalp every night with a syringe (the application is “so easy,” she notes) two times over a period of half an hour. The targeted scalp treatment—which is individually formulated for each person’s unique scalp profile—works by creating the ideal environment for hair growth, rebalancing the scalp’s pH level, and repairing the moisture barrier while also re-engaging hair follicles to stimulate regrowth, per the brand.

“The extract, I think has been helping me more than anything,” Lake says. “[It’s] what I believe helps my hair to be its healthiest at the scalp.”

Finally, Lake applies Harklinikken’s Hair Mask “almost every night” as the finishing step in her routine. Formulated with nourishing ingredients like organic Abyssinian and olive oils, the hydrating hair mask helps bring dry, dull hair back to life by sealing in moisture, reducing breakage, and boosting softness, per the brand. “I use the hair mask because it feels good on my hair—it’s just moisturizing,” Lake says. “It just really agrees with my hair and my scalp.”

As for styling her strands, Lake reaches for Harklinikken’s Styling Wax to slick her hair back. She also uses the Leonor Greyl Paris Mousse Au Lotus Volumatrice, which she says is “really good.”

Ultimately, Lake’s hair growth product arsenal has helped her feel better about her stands. “My hair has come back to a place where I am at peace with it,” she tells Prevention. “I actually like my hair, I actually think it looks really cool. But it took a long time to get to this place.”

Styling Wax

Mousse Au Lotus Volumatrice

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