Why Did Liberty All-Star Satou Sabally Shave Her Head?

Satou Sabally had a transformative offseason.

The three-time All-Star forward decided to leave the Phoenix Mercury in free agency to sign a multiyear contract with the New York Liberty in early April. But Sabally made a big change before that: she shaved her head.

Sabally debuted her new look in March by posting an Instagram carousel captioned with an alopecia awareness hashtag. A few days later, she collaborated with TOGETHXR on an Instagram video explaining her motivations for going bald.

“I don’t have [alopecia] myself, but my best friend does, and we’re just out here, guys,” Sabally said in the video. “It feels very liberating. I love the look. I did realize I have a small head.”

In early April, Sabally told JD Sports US that her best friend, Sunniva, with whom she also works, suffered hair loss 10 years ago due to alopecia universalis, which is the most severe form of the autoimmune condition. It results in total body hair loss, per the Mayo Clinic.

“It was crazy,” Sabally said. “We would braid over her bald patches, and the process of, for a 17-year-old girl in school to also have to accept that your hair is falling out, that is deeply traumatizing and really hard. I followed her journey. We were really close. I always knew that, one day, I wanted to shave my hair for her, and it’s been a decade now, or almost a decade, and it just felt the right thing to do for me. After my concussion, it was just a lot of work on my head.”

Sabally suffered a concussion during Game 3 of the 2025 WNBA Finals last October. The Las Vegas Aces swept the Mercury to win their third championship in four years. Long after the Aces hoisted the trophy, Sabally dealt with “lingering symptoms” from her concussion, preventing her from playing in Unrivaled.

Sabally, the second overall pick in the 2020 WNBA Draft, missed the first four games of this season due to a cyst. Liberty fans got their first look at their new star when Sabally made her debut in the team’s 87-70 loss at Barclays Center in Brooklyn last Thursday.

Sabally had her best showing in a Liberty uniform in their 91-76 loss to the Dallas Wings on Sunday afternoon. She led the Liberty with 20 points. She’ll try for her first win in New York when the Liberty host the Portland Fire on Monday night.

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This story was originally published May 24, 2026 at 7:41 PM.