In courtesy of KBS

KBS’s variety show, Hello Counselor, is a Korean talk show which invites regular people to share their everyday worries. Since its first episode in 2010, many people have opened up about their lives, allowing audiences to sympathize and feel relief from the sympathy.

On November 14 KST, the show greeted a special guest – BTOB’s Korean American rapper Peniel. In the episode, Peniel surprises his fans by revealing that he is experiencing a severe hair loss.

Peniel opened up that he has been struggling from the issue since five years ago, which is only about half a year after his debut. The symptom had grown severe, resulting in the loss of 70% of his hair. Fortunately, his hair is growing again as he is becoming less stressed about the symptom lately.

In spite of his parents’ wish for him to come back home in Chicago, Peniel chose to stay in Korea to continue his career as a member of BTOB.

“We even considered letting him go back to the US because it was apparent that the symptom gets eased whenever he spends time with his family back home,” said Eun-Kwang, who visited the studio to support him with other members, Min-hyuk and Hyun-sik.

As the symptom has remained persistent throughout years, Peniel decided to open up about it to prevent further stress about having to cover his head with hats all the time.

“I’ve been wearing hats for a long time and fans, too, were curious when I’m going to take them off,” said Peniel. “I wanted to be free of hats, so I discussed about it with the boss.”

He also didn’t forget to send a hopeful message to people who are suffering from similar worries. “Peace in mind is the most important thing, so don’t feel ashamed about your hair loss.”

 

By Heewon Kim