At 54, Ricki Lake is in her prime, and she’s all about capturing every special moment. In a new Instagram, the Hairspray star poses nude in an outdoor bathtub to celebrate, well, living!
In the snapshot, she sits in what appears to be a vintage-looking clawfoot bathtub, hugs her chest with her knees up and smiling face turned toward the sun. A line of lush trees stands behind her.
“Hands down, these days are the best of my life,” she captioned the post. “54 1/2 years old (young!) Grateful for all that had to happen for me to get to here. A place of complete self-acceptance and self-love.” She continued, thanking her partner, Ross, for joining her adventures.
Lake’s fans and friends adored the photo and echoed her self-celebration. “You just keep getting better and better lady❤️????????????????,” one person commented. “Wow!!!!!! All of the love and light that is just beaming out of you!!! ???????? absolutely beautiful!!!” another added. “Most beautiful radiant Ricki!!!!” someone else wrote.
This cheery place of Lake’s didn’t come without years of trials, though—the biggest one being her years-long battle with “debilitating” hair loss, a condition medically known as androgenetic alopecia. The actress shaved her head in 2019 and has been on an upward climb to enlightenment ever since.
“It was so scary and so liberating,” she wrote in a two-year post-shave update. “Self-love and acceptance has been the great takeaway.”
In December 2022, she celebrated three years of regrowth by sharing never-before-seen footage of the big haircut. “After three years, I can honestly say I appreciate and love my natural gray and sometimes wild unruly head of hair,” she wrote. “May all of you struggling with whatever also come to a place of peace and acceptance. Life is too damn short.”
The journey has not only helped Lake accept her hair but her entire being—including her age. On February 5, she shared a makeup-free, filter-free selfie with the simple caption: “54.”
“I’m getting better with age,” she told Health in 2021. “I’ve always embraced the fact that I’m getting older.”
That mindset is clearly working in her favor.
Kayla Blanton is a freelance writer who reports on all things health and nutrition for Men’s Health, Women’s Health, and Prevention. Her hobbies include perpetual coffee sipping and pretending to be a Chopped contestant while cooking.
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