In Her First House Appearance Since Her Radical Reveal, Ayanna Pressley Was Bald and Beautiful

In the midst of an impeachment trial that is fraught with obfuscation, transparency in politics is a rare and beautiful thing. So, too, is the bravery it took for Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) to trust The Root with the recent disclosure that she has alopecia and had been wearing wigs to hide her bald head in recent months.

It was a radical move—and a refreshing one, especially for the estimated 6.8 million people who experience alopecia areata. With her reveal having gone viral, on Wednesday, C-Span captured Pressley’s return to the House floor wig-free to propose the Comprehensive Credit Act, a bill intended to protect consumers from excessively punitive credit reporting (and yet another reason to stan for the freshman congresswoman). With her bald head on full display (and rocking her trademark red lip), Pressley once again demonstrated the power of transparency—in credit, in Congress, and in life.

“Here to break concrete ceilings & shake the table,” Pressley’s Twitter bio reads. No doubt the congresswoman was referring to her political leadership, but as she continues to acknowledge her alopecia without shame, she’s also encouraging a powerful shift in the beauty paradigm.