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The journey to becoming one of Britain’s best up-and-coming MCs has not been easy for Paigey Cakey – but after tackling alopecia and her toxic relationship, she is finally ready to move on...
HACKNEY- BORN British MC and acclaimed actress Paigey Cakey first came on to the scene back in 2012 when she dropped her first mixtape entitled The First Page.
Following on from the success of that, Paigey Cakey has gone on to prove her critics wrong with continued success. However, in recent times the star has been battling silently with her own demons.
A world away from music, Paigey Cakey has revealed that for the past three years, she has been hiding the hair loss disorder known as traction alopecia. The Voice caught up with the rapper to discuss how this affected her mentally, her plans for new music and her turbulent relationship with fellow rapper Lady Leshurr.
She took the decision to share one of her biggest insecurities with the world after tirelessly trying to cover up her baldness with ‘hair mascara’ began to take its toll. Faced with the prospect of losing even more of her hair if she chose to do nothing, the 25-year-old decided to share the secret she had been hiding from her fans and was ready to face her truth.
After plenty of research, she decided that a hair transplant was her only option. “I had the hair transplant done on November 15,” Paigey said. “I’ve been suffering from bad traction alopecia for the last three years. Traction alopecia is when you keep pulling your hair. It can be tight canerows or putting in loads of product and slicking it back really tight. After a period of time it starts to thin and falls out.
REPUTATION
“If you keep doing that, the hair follicles just don’t grow back and it becomes like scar tissue, and that’s what has happened to me over the last few years.”
Paigey decided to go to Longevita, a leading hair transplant clinic in Turkey to have the procedure done – not only because of their reputation but also because the price was significantly cheaper than what she could find in the UK.
Surprisingly for her, supporters, followers and those that previously claimed to not be fans of the MC have rallied around and shown an over- whelming amount of support for the star. She says: “I didn’t think the reaction was going to be so positive. I get so many messages on Instagram and YouTube.
BEFORE
AFTER
“So many people are supporting me. I’ve had a lot of hair companies send me wigs and hair products. The company Treasure Tress send me boxes of natural products every month, and it’s really been helping.”
She adds: “So many people reached out with similar stories. Another girl also shared her story after I did – one of my fans. She said none of her friends know she has alopecia, she has no hair on her head at all and she put up a post inspired by me and that was very, very touching.”
It’s been a long and testing road to recovery but Paigey, who is currently receiving complimentary PRP Therapy, intended to stimulate hair growth, from the Longevita clinic, says she has finally got her confidence up and is ready to release new music.
Having recently toured Europe, visiting Russian capital Moscow at the back end of last year, she is ready to go and sees herself releasing new music imminently. Inspired by other artists such as good friend Stefflon Don, favourite artist Drake and the likes of SZA, Bryson Tiller, Kojo Funds, J Hus and Rihanna, Paigey says there are a host of people she would love to do collaborations with.
But there’s something else that’s on Paigey’s mind, and it’s her feud with Lady Leshurr. She tells us of her disapointment that the rapper didn’t reach out to her personally, instead releasing a diss track.
FUED: Lady Leshurr
“I’ll keep it real, I don’t like being drawn out all the time, always mentioning me in your music, putting out sly digs and I thought enough was enough – she has said too much on this track. I took to Twitter because there was nothing else I could do to put my side of the story out there, I didn’t think it would be this crazy,” Paigey said in response to Lady Leshurr’s RIP track.
She added: “I was going to reply but I don’t want to be thrown off course, I’m working on a set project so I’m just going to allow it. We were in a relationship from 2012 – it’s been so long, so it’s crazy all of this has come out.”
But Paigey insists she doesn’t regret anything and has no hard feelings towards her, and believes the relationship between them soured when Lady Leshurr began dating one of her closest friends.
The artist maintains, however, that she is still a fan of her music – but just hopes her name will be left out of any future indirects. “I think she should put that energy into her music because she looked like she put her heart and soul into it.
“I think she’s talented – I’m not a hater. I think she should continue with that sort of energy but just try not to talk about me and do her thing.”
Having found peace within and leaving the drama behind her, Paigey is looking forward to her future projects including roles in upcoming BBC film, Verse and a part in movie The Intent 2. She would encourage others to do what makes them happy, show vulnerability and to be yourself.
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