Regina Belle Revealed Why She Rocks Gray Hair & How She Almost Lost Her Life

Posted On : December 19, 2015

“Baby Come To Me” and “A Whole New World” singer, Regina Belle, is 52 years young and looking just as beautiful as she did in 1987 when she released her first single at the age of 28.

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Regina Belle (via Instagram)

Belle Explains Why She Keeps It Gray N’ Sexy

As you can see, our girl Regina (54) is rockin’ her gray hair with pride and taking names while doing it! In a prior interview, with Souleo of Huffington Post, she explained why she decided to let her grays shine:

“I want to be who I am now. I rock my gray hair because it is a blessing. I colored mine for many years, but I’ve gotten compliments from so many men and women about being brave enough to sport the gray. I even wear it on the cover of my record. I am comfortable in my skin and I want listeners to feel that as well.”

Her Life Threatening Surgery

Aside from Regina Belle being a woman of great pride and self-confidence, she can also add the title of ‘survivor’ to her name, because just a few years ago, she risked losing her life when she underwent brain surgery after finding out that she had a brain tumor that left her permanently deaf in one ear. Regina revealed, to NPR, what her rehabilitation was like after her surgery and the fears she faced in knowing there was a possibility that she may not have come out of it alive:

Regina Belle: “…In 2009, I was diagnosed with a brain tumor. [….] So it was kind of difficult with 10 months of rehabilitation. We had to have two surgeries because the surgery was so complex. It was only supposed to take two hours. It took eight hours. It was only supposed to take one surgeon. It took six surgeons. We ended up having to be closed up and then the doctor had to go back and open me back up. God is good.

So 10 months being out of the loop and then, finally, when I got ready to go back to work, I could just hear a small voice saying to me, now, when you sing God is good, you will understand how good I really am because you cannot tell by looking at me. You don’t know what I’ve been through.”

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Regina Belle (via Instagram)

Why She’s Grateful Today

RB: “I don’t want to go back there. …That was a scary place, you know, to realize that you may not wake up, you may not ever come out of this. And then when you wake up, what kind of state will you be in? And 10 months seems like forever when you’re trying to, you can’t walk by yourself. You can’t feed yourself. You can’t dress yourself.

But when I look at where I am today – being able to stand up, sing and do all these things of my own free will, and I lost all my hearing in my left ear, so I’m clinically deaf in my left ear, so to be able to still sing and do all the things that I do, I’m not scared to talk about it now, ’cause this is huge. I’m a walking miracle.” -via NPR

Throughout all of her ups and downs, Regina’s five children and her husband of 27 years, retired NBA player Pastor John Battle III, were right there by her side.

After taking a break from the R&B music world for 15 years, Regina says she now understands that she can balance her Christian faith, her gospel music career, and her R&B career successfully, without compromising her beliefs and herself. She’s rockin’ her gray hair with a whole lotta swag…showing these lil’ young girls out here that it’s cool to be fine in your 50’s- with no regrets, no pressure to be something you are not, and no compromise to your self-worth. Get it Regina Belle, we see you!

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