Lupita Nyong’o is letting her 10.7 million Instagram followers know that hair is not a necessity of hers.
The 40-year-old Academy Award winner debuted her shaved bald head on March 10 with a close-up selfie on Instagram.
“Happy without hair! Application for the Dora Milaje submitted),” Nyong’o captioned her post.
For those unaware, the Dora Milaje are a group of elite female warriors in the “Black Panther” films. The women are sworn to protect the king or queen in the fictional African country of Wakanda.
Related: Lupita Nyong’o Shows Off Her New Look and Fans are Eating It Up
By the afternoon of May 12, Lupita’s photo had attained over 590,000 likes, with over 6,400 comments from other celebrities and fans noting how stunningly beautiful she looks.
“Stunning! Face Card never declines!!!”
“Welcome to the ‘bald head’ and loving it club. As always you look gorgeous.”
“Hair is just an accessory you’re beautiful in & out, with & without”
Meanwhile, R&B singer Ciara and others left an array of red hearts emojis underneath Lupita’s post.
Her photo also was shared by The Shade Room, where several commenters mentioned how well she pulls off the new ’do.
“It takes real confidence to go bald. She looks amazing”
“The bald look suits her well.. She’s a beautiful black queen”
In early April, the Kenyan-Mexican actress said “goodbye” to her bob-length sisterlocks and sported a buzz-cut coiffure.
“I chopped off my sisterlocks! Here’s how I said goodbye. #sisterlocks #shorthair #newhaircut,” Nyong’o wrote as the caption.
Four years ago, the actress candidly discussed being “shunned” due to confidently rocking her natural hair. In an exclusive interview with Porter magazine’s fall 2018 issue, she said, “Natural, African, kinky hair – it’s often been painted as uncivilized or wild.”
She continued, “Being featured on the cover of a magazine fulfills me as it is an opportunity to show other dark, kinky-haired people, and particularly our children, that they are beautiful just the way you are.”
Since coming on the scene in 2013, Nyong’o has been an active advocate for the beauty of natural hair. In 2017, she called out the U.K. magazine Grazia for photoshopping her hair in its latest issue at the time.
“Disappointed that @GraziaUK edited out & smoothed my hair to fit a more Eurocentric notion of what beautiful hair looks like. #dtmh,” she wrote on Twitter.
Nyong’o’s love for natural texture hairstyles is apparent through the versatile style options she wears on red carpets, magazine covers, and in interviews.
