The first winner of America’s Next Top Model, Adrianne Curry, claimed a makeover directed by the show’s former host Tyra Banks left her “partially bald.”
Curry, 43, took to her Instagram on Friday, October 31, to detail her claim, which allegedly took place while filming season 1 of the reality TV series at the end of 2002 and early 2003.
“I wanted to discuss why I’m partially bald right here. The reason is, when I was on Top Model, Tyra Banks told them to put a weave in my hair. The black stylists that were putting it in pulled her aside, and I heard them tell her, like, ‘This white chick’s hair is too fragile for this,’ and she’s [Tyra’s], like, ‘Oh no, no, just do it,’” Curry alleged of the show’s host, 51, during her video. “I had an oozing wound from the braids. Half my hair had been ripped out here. The little bit of hair that grows here, that’s it.”
Us Weekly has reached out to a representative for Banks for comment.
As Curry, who won the modelling contest at the age of 20, shared her claim, she pointed to the left side of her head which showed a patch of short-growing strands.
“That’s all, like, it’s hardly anything,” Curry said.
She then alleged that once the series had wrapped, she visited an Illinois hair salon where she sought guidance in rectifying the alleged incident.
“When I got off the show, they didn’t even take the weave out so I had to go to a black salon in Illinois and I will never forget, because all the hair stylists came around,” Curry stated in the clip. “One chick was like, ‘Who the hell put this in your white head?’ I couldn’t say anything because I was under an NDA so it took hours and hours for them to get it out. I was left with… horrific moist scabs all over my head. They [the stylists] were so sweet … they just couldn’t believe that this was done to me.”
Curry, who later appeared in MTV’s The Surreal Life before landing several acting gigs, also spoke about the alleged lasting effects of her makeover.
“It’s never grown, this entire area. It’s permanently damaged from that weave. It was so painful,” she claimed. “I was crawling out of my skin every second. All my friends were like, ‘Are you bald there?’ I think most of those makeovers were done just to torture us, honestly.”
Curry then spoke about how she couldn’t understand why she required additional alleged makeover direction given she undertook a dramatic hair cut on the show.
“On episode one, they cut my hair for the photo shoot and it looked really good … and then, they’re like, ‘You need a makeover.’ It was awful,” she claimed. “It felt so validating to be in that salon with all the women who were just, like, ‘Who would do this to you?’ and I’m, like, her name is Tyra.”
Curry then gave the camera a laugh before ending the recording. The post attracted mixed responses from fans in the comments section, with one person writing, “I’m so sorry! That sounds awful,” and another person writing, “It also happens with a lot of medications and menopause.”