Connect
← Return to My Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT/SCT) story: Will you share yours?
Discussion
My Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT/SCT) story: Will you share yours?
Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) & CAR-T Cell Therapy | Last Active: 3 hours ago | Replies (582)Comment receiving replies
Today i noticed that my hair has reached a noticeable growth stage. What struck me today is how dark it looks.
All my life, I was the little red-haired girl. As an adult the same thing. My hair had gotten lighter and some grey, but still red. I was also one who had and has a lot of freckles. I knew my hair needed to grow back for me to understand how i would feel. What if it is brown? Or grey? I never dyed my hair. It was not necessary. Today I thought about acceptance. I just do not know. I liked being a red head. Unique.
Freckles? They do not go away. I will have those forever. I may never get more, but i have many that will take a long time to lighten.
I had already had my transplant when the RN who was part of my discharge team said I will likely have my donor's hair color. OMG i thought. I believe had i been told this from the gate I would have known my life is what is a stake. What is hair? It is ok to mourn the things we lose. They are our body parts. Part of our everyday lives for a very long time for many of us. I will need for it to grow for a few more months until more is clear.
More will be revealed on this life- long transplant journey.
Replies to "Today i noticed that my hair has reached a noticeable growth stage. What struck me today..."
Connect
Good morning, @katgob. Congratulations on the hair growth!! Always a momentous occasion to see more than noticeable fuzzies on top of our heads!
Not sure where the RN, who told you that you’d most likely have your donor’s hair color, got her information. As a bone marrow recipient, your blood cells will contain the DNA from your marrow donor, while your epithelial cells contain your own DNA. There is little evidence that the donor DNA combines with our own genomes. There are some anecdotal stories of cells showing up in fingernails or cheek swabs but that is rare. You are a chimera with 85% of your body being your DNA and 15% of your donor’s DNA in your blood.
However, your hair may grow back a slightly altered color and texture from the chemo. My hair was always stick straight and fine. After months of chemo for AML and then the preconditioning chemo for the transplant, my eyelashes grew back white and the top of my head had wavy, courser hair while the rest was stick straight and fine! After 5 years my hair is pretty much back to normal with a few more greys popping up. My eyelashes are still white!
Interesting reading on why our hair changes color with chemo:
https://www.healthline.com/health/cancer/chemo-curls
It’s pretty normal for us to mourn the things we’ve lost with some of our cancer journeys. But I tend to focus more on what I gained! I have had the pleasure of 5 more years that I wouldn’t have had if not for the bone marrow transplant. And I still have the photo of me with the fresh buzz cut of my long hair being preemptively shaved off the day I received my first round of chemo. My cute young nurses told me I looked like the badass chick from Dead Pool! I went with that… LOL.