Viva Talks: Inside Viva's winter beauty issue, female hair loss, and Madonna's new biopic

Jada Pinkett Smith attends the 94th Annual Academy Awards at Hollywood and Highland. She has helped spark a conversation about alopecia and female hair loss. Photo / Getty

From winter hacks to hair loss and with some pop divas in the mix, Viva this week is about all things beauty related!

Today's issue of the fashion magazine, available in the New Zealand Herald, is all about beauty - covering the latest treatments and tips, to exploring the stigma around female hair loss.

And on Viva Talks, the new accompanying podcast to Viva, Viva deputy editor Johanna Thornton is joined by beauty editor Ash Cometti and commercial editor Emma Gleason to take listeners and readers behind the scenes on this week's issue.

The three discuss the latest beauty treatments they experienced, including a pregnancy massage and discovering what cupping is, before Ash explains what she learned about female hair loss for the issue's cover story.

Conditions like alopecia have been put into the spotlight this year, after the Chris Rock-Will Smith controversy was sparked by a joke Rock made about Jada Pinkett-Smith's shaved head, which she has adopted due to being diagnosed with alopecia. However, as Ash explains, there are multiple causes that can lead to female hair loss - and it's far more common than you may think.

The team also discuss the winter beauty hacks you need to be aware of over the next few months, before dissecting the news of Britney Spears' latest wedding, and what fashions and moments we want to see in the new Madonna biopic, now that Ozark and Inventing Anna star Julia Garner has reportedly been cast as the Queen of Pop herself.

Listen to the podcast above, or read more about these topics in this week's copy of Viva. Find more Viva content at viva.co.nz

• Viva Talks is a weekly fashion, beauty and culture podcast from the team behind Viva, New Zealand's top fashion magazine. New episodes are available to listen to every Wednesday from 5am.

• You can follow the podcast at nzherald.co.nz, iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.