Country Singer Lauren Alaina’s Bulimia Was So Bad, Her Hair Fell Out

Country singer Lauren Alaina battled bulimia from ages 12 to 18 — and nearly lost her ability to sing as a result. “I was a really, really unhealthy teenager. I had bulimia so bad that my hair fell out,” Alaina tells Yahoo Beauty.

Eating disorders are tragically common. An estimated 20 million females and 10 million males in the United States suffer from an eating disorder at some time in their life, according to a recent study. Nearly two thirds of the females recover — though for many, it takes more than a decade to move past it, Massachusetts General Hospital reports.

The 22-year-old singer finally confronted her issues head-on, which for her meant creative and emotional release. “I really wrote this album by accident, because songwriting is therapeutic for me,” she said. “I wrote these songs because I was going through all these huge life changes and I needed to get them out of my head. I think it was really cool when it all came together, because I accidentally made an album out of my actual life.”

Alaina’s second album, Road Less Traveled, dropped on January 27, is trending on iTunes, and reached #14 on the country music charts. She wrote it over the course of six years, detailing her struggles with her father’s alcoholism and stint in rehab, her parents’ divorce, her eating disorder, and her road to recovery and self-acceptance.

“I close the album with a song called Pretty, and I wrote it all about my journey and defining that word,” she said. “I used to think that pretty was what I looked like and what size pants I wore. And now I think pretty is how I treat people, and I think it’s important to treat people with respect and to be kind. I was always nice to people, but I wasn’t nice to me, and now I try to be nice to me and everyone else.”

For Alaina, the music is intensely personal.

“I was on American Idol when I was 15 — that was when I came into the spotlight — and there was such a vast process after the show because they want to use the momentum of American Idol to help with your album,” she says. “So I didn’t get to write any of that music, and I’d been writing songs since I was 9 years old, and I wrote this entire album. So there’s definitely a big difference.”

When she was 18, Alaina faced a stark choice: Get help or stop singing. She had polyps on her vocal cords that had begun to bleed.

“My vocal doctor asked me if I had ever had an eating disorder, and I said no, obviously. And my mom did that mom-voice thing … [as if to say] ‘Yes you have, and I know you do.’ And I didn’t know that she knew, so it was really embarrassing. That was the first step of me recovering, because the doctor said, ‘If you don’t stop, you’re not going to sing anymore.’ That was a big enough deal for me that I decided, ‘I should probably figure this out.’”

For Alaina, the road to recovery was rocky, and it took her years to develop a healthy relationship with food. “When you’re in that trap, you don’t want to stop. I wanted to be healthy so badly, but I didn’t want to gain weight. And I knew if I stopped, that was the first thing that was going to happen. And I did. I gained a lot of weight; I gained about 40 pounds,” she says.

She’s since found a healthy weight using the Atkins diet and a balanced exercise regimen, hitting the gym five to six times a week.

“I’ve just lost 31 pounds. I’ve lost 21 in the last 6 months, and I’m so proud of that because I did it without any bad habits,” she said. “I’m on a low-carb diet, which really works for me because carbs make my stomach hurt for whatever reason. They make my stomach swell and I just don’t feel good. I eat lots of protein and vegetables.”

Alaina replaces meals rich in carbohydrates with substitutes that work for her body.

“My favorite meal is a pizza casserole made out of spaghetti squash. Zucchini noodles, too. I think there’s a healthy solution to everything, so if you have something that you don’t like about yourself, you just have to take the proper steps to fix it,” she says. “Nothing happens overnight. It takes dedication and a lifestyle change. I think any lifestyle change is difficult at first because it’s completely different to what you’re used to, but this was kind of made for me, because I typically didn’t eat a lot of carbs before. … I feel a thousand times better. I think everybody just has to find what’s right for their body. It’s possible. I did not think it was possible before. I’ve lost weight healthily, which for me is the craziest thing in the world. ”

Before, says Alaina, “I thought skinny people didn’t eat.”

She had tried every fad diet you can name, and some that you can’t.

“I just desperately wanted to be thin, and I totally had to let that mentality go because it’s not about what you weigh. I would weigh every single day, all day long. I’d eat something and then weigh and see how it affected me. I had a serious problem with it, and I don’t do that anymore,” she says.

Going public with her eating disorder wasn’t an easy decision, but she realized how much she could influence other people who were dealing with their own food and diet demons.

“I just remember thinking that I couldn’t lie anymore. I used to lie about who I was, and try to be thinner and try to be more blonde, and try to be all of these things — and I just felt so bad,” she says.

Now, Alaina wants to be a voice for young girls struggling with similar issues. “I think I have a really cool and unique opportunity to help people,” she says. “They voted for me on American Idol and they buy my music. But a lot of my fans are young women. And since I’ve spoken out about it, I’ve had girls come up to me and talk to me about their own problems, and it’s really common, unfortunately. I used to think I was the only person in the world. … I have flaws, and it would have meant a lot to me when I was 16 to know that somebody that I look up to so much had overcome what I was going through — and that you can actually get through it.”

Alaina is now following in the footsteps of the greats.

“I just want to be that empowering woman in country music,” she says. “When I was growing up, there were so many: Martina McBride, Shania Twain — all of these women that were really proud to be women,” she says. “Everybody has their own take on who they are as an artist, and that’s just what I identify with most: being empowering and accepting who you are. Because that is the hardest thing on the planet for me, it took me a really long time to be able to do that.”

“I feel like I’m in such a better place, and I’m so excited to have music out because all of my music has that message in it. Regardless of who your parents are, where you come from, or what you say about yourself, you can overcome all of that — and that’s what makes you who you are. That’s what I’ve taken away from life in the last four years, and that’s what the album says.”

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