RELATED: If You Got This Vaccine, Your Risk of COVID After Vaccination May Be Higher. In a recent Instagram exchange, Drake revealed that he’s currently recovering from one lingering side effect of COVID: Hair loss. The announcement came when a fan account posted before and after photos on Instagram showing the rapper sporting a heart shaved into the front of his hairline that looked to be disappearing in a later picture. The fan pointed out the change in the post’s caption, writing “that heart is stressed,” along with a skull and cry-laughing emoji. Drake soon responded with a comment explaining the waning hair design. “I had COVID that s*** grew in weird I had to start again,” he replied in a comment, along with a cry-laughing emoji. He then added: “It’s coming back don’t diss.” While it has come as a shocking and unexpected surprise to many who’ve experienced it, hair loss is actually a relatively common side effect of COVID. One pre-print study released on medRxiv in March surveyed 5,163 patients for a 21-day period after they tested positive for the virus, finding that one in three respondents had experienced the symptom. One doctor even pointed out that the effects can sometimes be felt even after the virus has run its course. “I see patients in the clinic for hair disorder issues, and recently we had a couple of patients who during—and even after—infection with COVID, started to have pretty noticeable shedding of their hair,” Pedram Yazdan, MD, an assistant professor of dermatology at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine, said in an interview with Yahoo Life. “And basically there was no real attributable reason other than the infection that could have caused them to shed their hair.” RELATED: If You Got Pfizer, This Is When You’re More Likely to Get Breakthrough COVID. Drake isn’t alone when it comes to celebrities who’ve struggled with hair loss after developing COVID. Last August, actor Alyssa Milano documented her struggles with the virus, posting a video on Twitter that documented how much she was shedding as a result.ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb “It’s hard, especially when you’re an actor and so much of your identity is wrapped up in those things, like having long silky hair and clean skin,” she said during an appearance on The Dr. Oz Show last October. “Along with that also, I have the brain fog. Which, again, as an actress, as someone who has to memorize dialogue and be able to emote, and respond, and be on my toes, it’s frightening.” And for more celebrity news sent straight to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter. It’s still unclear when Drake actually came down with COVID, but he was still one of the earliest celebrities to speak publicly about getting tested for the virus. In March 2020, the Canadian rapper was exposed while hanging out with NBA star Kevin Durant, who later tested positive. “Yeah, I had to do a test, but it came back negative, though,” the rapper said while streaming on Instagram Live later that month. But, he added: “That test was uncomfortable though, they put that Q-tip all the way inside your thoughts and s***.” RELATED: Dr. Fauci Warns Not to Do This If You Got Pfizer.
