Cynthia Nixon has shaved off her famous red hair for the production of a new stage play.

The 45-year-old Sex and the City star debuted her new look on Live With Kelly today and explained that it was all for her role as a cancer victim in the show Wit.

Cynthia portrays poetry professor Vivian Bearing in the play which opens later this month in New York City and spoke about how she feels having no hair on her head.

"I thought it was kind of gonna be no muss, no fuss, but I have to shave it every day!" she told talk show host Kelly Ripa.

"It's got kind of a five o'clock shadow, and you don't want to go on with that.

"I was always kind of curious to see what it would be like. I like it; I don't think I'm gonna keep it forever."

Cynthia knows full well what it is like to battle the disease as she was diagnosed with breast cancer herself in 2006 following a routine mammogram.

The actress is engaged to long term partner Christine Marinoni and they have an 11-month-old son Max. Cynthia also has two children from a 15-year relationship with Danny Mozes.

She recently caused controversy by saying that it was her "choice" to be gay rather than it being a genetic development.

Cynthia claims she wasn't born homosexual, but that this doesn't make her sexuality any less real.