Selma Blair Recalls the Emotional Moment She Let Her Son Shave Her Head
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Selma Blair let her son shave her head before she received a lifesaving stem cell transplant in 2019; the moment is included in her new documentary.
“It was to have him be a part of it, help him be in control,” said the actress. “It makes me feel better knowing Arthur has a say.”
Blair, 49, was diagnosed with MS in 2018; in August, she revealed that her illness is in remission.
Before Selma Blair could share her multiple sclerosis (MS) battle with the world, she had to face it herself—and a huge part of her motivation was her 10-year-old son, Arthur. Now, the Cruel Intentions actress is remembering how he helped her through some of her most difficult moments during her illness and the grueling treatment process.
In one of the most emotional moments in her new documentary, Introducing, Selma Blair, Arthur shaves his mother’s head before she received what would prove to be a lifesaving stem cell transplant in 2019. (Then, to make him laugh, she fashions some of it into a mustache.)
“It was to have him be a part of it, help him be in control of maybe like a first image of Mom looking different,” Blair, 49, told Entertainment Tonight late last week. “That was pretty easy and a nice moment, and it makes me feel better knowing Arthur has a say—not a say, really, but is included.”
However, she noted that Arthur has forgotten parts of the moment and the conversations leading up to it. “There is so much—I realize he was really young—he didn’t remember,” the mother of one continued. Blair shares Arthur with Jason Bleick, a fashion designer and her former boyfriend.
"Multiple sclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord)," Roumen Balabanov, M.D., a neurologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, previously told Prevention.com. It occurs when the body's immune system mistakenly targets the fatty substance that protects the nerve fibers in the brain and spinal cord. Anyone can get MS, but women are twice as likely to be impacted, and it's usually diagnosed between the ages of 15 and 60.
Blair was diagnosed with MS in 2018; after multiple unsuccessful treatments for the neurological condition, she underwent a staggering number of chemotherapy treatments, followed by a stem cell transplant. Earlier this year, the After actress revealed that her MS is finally in remission.
As long as Blair has battled MS, Arthur has provided his mom some much-needed motivation to keep going. “He says, ‘Mommy’s not sick. Mommy’s brave,’” she told People in 2019. “I had no idea Arthur was proud of that. I thought ‘I’m probably an embarrassment,’ but to know I’m not was one of my proudest moments.”
These days, he’s still by his mom’s side every step of the way. “Having the responsibility for any creature, you know, is, it’s huge,” she continued in the Entertainment Tonight interview. “And so that will always fuel everything. Arthur will always be my North Star now.”
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