Ellen Degeneres Explains to Audience Why Her Hair Is Now Falling Out

Bad hair days are a common thing, but for an A-list celebrity (or really anyone), a hair-tastrophe is the end of the world! On a recent episode of the Ellen Degeneres Show, you may have noticed that the day-time host was sporting a new shorter, blonder ‘do. The 61-year-old points out to the audience during her monologue that she frequently dyes her hair because it is short and has to be colored often.  

She explains that she typically has her hair lighter on the top and darker on the sides, but to save time, decided to change up her look and go with one single shade of blonde. However, this did not save her time at all, and the real salon nightmare began. 

“It started with the same sentence all bad hair stories start with, 'I tried a new person.'" After working on Ellen’s hair for more than two hours, the colorist was finally finished, but according to the host the end result was "not good." 

As a talk-show host, Ellen was clearly worried about her appearance (like anyone would be), and voiced her concerns to the colorist. She recalled to the audience, “So the person said, 'Well, let me try it again,' and they tried it again. We were running out of time, and they're like, 'It'll rinse out. Every time you shampoo, it'll get better.'" 

The problem continued and soon Ellen was left with a rainbow assortment of colors in her hair, telling the viewers, “It was basically many colors... I couldn't even pinpoint what color it was. It was, like, orange and pink and purple. I had the pride flag on my head." 

After more time spent coloring her hair, Ellen had another serious problem... her hair was falling out. Anyone that has bleached their hair knows, if you bleach-and-tone too often, your hair becomes severely damaged. And, that is exactly what happened! 

"So my hair was falling out, like, literally, I would touch my hair and hair was falling out," she said about the toning process.  "I think my hair was so embarrassed, it didn't want anything to do with my head and said, 'I'm getting out of here.'" 

With the problem still not resolved, Ellen panicked because she was scheduled to shoot her show on Monday. "I said, 'Portia, I've got to get my hair done before I go back to work,' and she said, 'It's not that bad.' I said, 'No, it's horrible,' and she said, 'It's not.' And then finally I convinced some people to come to my house and fix it, and I told her, and she goes, 'Oh, thank God. It was horrible!'" 

Luckily, the host was able to hire a new colorist and documented the tedious process involved in fixing her hair. While her new hairstyle looks amazing, sadly, the damaged follicles could not be reversed. 

She jokingly told the audience: "I can't touch it. I can't wash it. Today I should be fine if I don't sneeze or blink."