Louis Theroux reveals he’s considering a major step to ‘continue his career’ after losing his eyebrows to a health condition
Louis Theroux has revealed he is considering getting his eyebrows tattooed to ‘further his career’ after losing them during his battle with alopecia.
The documentary filmmaker, 53, has long been known for his animated facial expressions, but turned to Instagram for advice after he was diagnosed with the health condition.
Alopecia areata is an autoimmune disease that causes hair to fall out, often in clumps the size and shape of a 50 cent coin.
The amount of hair loss can vary; some lose it in small areas, while others have large patches of baldness. The hair can grow back, but sometimes it also falls out again.
Louis shared a photo of his famous eyebrows, along with the caption: “I’d like to know how to continue a career based largely on raising and lowering several eyebrows without any eyebrows at all!”
Louis Theroux has revealed he is considering getting his eyebrows tattooed to ‘further his career’ after losing them during his battle with alopecia
The documentary filmmaker turned to Instagram for advice after being diagnosed with the health condition
He added: ‘Alopecia. I’m seriously considering getting them tattooed again, but it feels like a big step! Thoughts?’
Fans were quick to give Louis kind words of advice, with many sharing their own alopecia struggles.
It comes after Louis shared on social media in August that ‘new bald spots’ were appearing, and that he was still struggling to grow his beard back.
He said: ‘Alopecia update (try to stay calm!): New bald spots are appearing in my ‘top hair’ (the hair on top of my head) BUT I can now grow a strange, scraggly and quite thin white beard. So that’s something.
“And there are some small regrowth spots on my eyebrow. FWIW I take vitamin D, iron, and something called biotin. Does it help? Who knows?’
Louis wondered if he had developed alopecia after losing all his facial hair in January.
Sharing photos of his changing beard, he wrote: ‘So this is how my beard is growing now, due to what I think is probably alopecia’
‘I’m actually getting a little triangle of stubble around my mouth and a bit more on the sides.
It comes after Louis shared on social media in August that ‘new bald spots’ were appearing, and that he was still struggling to grow his beard back
He wrote at the time that he was taking supplements in the hope that it would encourage his hair to grow back
Louis wondered if he had alopecia after losing all his facial hair in January (left), and shared a video comparing his sparse beard to its full growth six months ago (right)
Louis shared his hope that his facial hair would grow back after only managing to grow a ‘triangle of stubble around his mouth’
“It’s not a big deal, but I don’t want people to think I’m doing something creative with my facial hair and then doing it poorly, when it’s exactly what I look like when I don’t shave.”
‘This is also the reason why I don’t wear a beard that often anymore. Maybe it will grow back. Who knows?
‘It mainly happened in the course of 2022. You can see how it developed from the other two photos taken six months earlier and a year earlier.’
In recent years, Louis has led a brand new series of celebrity interviews, with the likes of Joan Collins, Rita Ora and Anthony Joshua.
In August he said the TV industry’s fear of causing offense had led to an “atmosphere of fear” and “less confident” programming.
During a keynote speech at the Edinburgh Television Festival, the BBC documentary star also took aim at the Corporation, accusing it of ‘playing it safe’ and ‘avoiding the tough topics’.
Although Theroux is best known for his 2000 special on pedophile celebrity Jimmy Savile, his other documentary subjects include the Church of Scientology, neo-Nazis, crystal meth, plastic surgery and America’s infamous San Quentin prison.
Addressing an audience of broadcasting professionals in his prestigious speech, he spoke of a new focus on television that was “more thoughtful about representation, about who gets to tell what story, about power and privilege, about the need not just to seek offense to give’. .
But while he said he was personally “fully supportive of that agenda,” he added: “I wonder if there’s something else going on as well.
‘That the very laudable objectives of not causing offense have created an atmosphere of fear that sometimes leads to less confident, less morally complex films.’
He added that a possible knock-on effect was that “programs about extremists, sex workers and pedophiles may become more difficult to commission.”