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Ugh my hair
I feel like puking. I'm reading an article from Medical News Today on hair regrowth following chemotherapy. It's so discouraging. It's talks about slow growth, thinner growth, hair that even after the cancer growth is thinner than before and may not ever look or feel like it did before. I'm so glad I didn't see this article before I lost my hair
My bio hair is stick straight and very fine but full and I wear it blonde. I had plenty of fine hair that I was pretty good at working with. I mostly liked my hair.
I wore my hair permed though the 80s into the 90s. Sometimes really short other times shoulder length. I call that the poodle years.
My hair grows slow and has never been much longer than my shoulders. I consider myself a "short hair dog." I always envy the beautiful long "Farrah" like hair my cousin had, but I could style mine like Olivia Newton John. In 1996 I made a really hard decision to cut my hair short similar to Princesses Diana's. It was a hard decision because I knew it could be years to be shoulder length again. Over the last decade I wore it shoulder length.
I was sick about loosing my hair. I wanted to use cold capping while receiving chemotherapy. The care manager sent me a message that I felt was cold and uncaring when I requested the order for cold capping. She said the doctor will sign it but you be wasting your money it never works. I went to PubMed and I found an article discussing Carboplatin and TAXOL combo and cold capping. All patients stopped cold capping after the second cycle because it didn't stop the alopecia. So I decided to embrace wigs.
I'm in a hair loss sister community on Facebook. Most the women have hair loss do to hormonal disorders and autoimmune alopecia, but some women's hair didn't fully return after chemotherapy.
I've been really doing a great job taking care of my body through chemotherapy. Hopefully my hair will return better than before. I can only hope right?
Denise
Picture from 1999. Zoe and I in Guangzhou, China
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I hope it comes back eventually. The sisterhood community sounds amazing.
I don’t know if it’s allowed, but have you considered meds? I know you’ve posted about keeping things as natural as possible. I take a small dose of Minoxidil. I had what is suspected as telogen efluvium due to rapid weight loss and post covid syndrome. It should have returned on its own but I started on the med just in case.
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3 ReactionsI did buy minoxidil. It arrived yesterday. That's what brought me to the article about hair regrowth. I was looking for instructions on how to use it. The package I received said woman shouldn't use it. It's okay for women, but some women end up with hair growth where they don't want it 😲
If I end up with unwanted hair I'm sure I'll write about it😁
I considered the topical, but felt the oral was more practical for me. I think you must apply daily. I’ll admit I have had some facial growth, but it’s manageable with tweezers.
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1 ReactionI'd wait to see what grows out before taking drugs. After my first 6 cycles of carbo/taxol, my hair grew in pretty much the same as it was before. Maybe a bit curlier. At first, after ~7 weeks, there was just real fine fuzz, like the hair on your arms. I shaved that off when I had a uniform layer of it. But by ~3.5 months it met my low bar for going out without a wig (full scalp coverage). By 5 months it was getting shaggy, and I had to get a haircut.
It sounds like you're not planning to go out with short gray hair, so I'm guessing you're going to be wearing wigs for at least a year anyway.
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2 ReactionsWell I'm not a hairy person. I never had hair on my arms and I didn't have much hair on my legs. My hair grows slow. I've kind of figured I'd be wearing wigs for two years.
I've only been wearing them for 4 months. I pretend like it's no problem, but they do irritate my head. I'm good at faking things. I'll just keep faking that I Love wigs. No biggie. This is all part of the anger I still feel for my body for letting me down catastrophically.
My hair grew back, just as thick (or rather the same volume) as before I lost it. Was on carboplatin+paclitaxil. My hair grows slowly too, but since stopping chemo in mid-March of this year my hair is about 3" long. It would've been longer had I not had two trims. You've got to be patient, especially since hair grows slower the older one gets;)
Also, I've been taking collagen powder every day for the past year. It believe it helps.
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2 ReactionsI have a question. Why did you shave the peach fuz off?
In china the costume is to shave the infant hair off babies at around 6 months. One person said it was suppose to make the hair come in better. We don't do that in the US. Our kids have great hear anyway.
Im not on /chemo but taking Biological tablets called Jakovi I have noticed my hair is getting thinner. My doctor tells me it isnt a side effect and yet it is happening
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1 ReactionI'm in a hair loss sister community in a Facebook group.
The reasons for Hair loss vary and some don't really even know why its happening to them.
Thank you for sharing. I appreciate you situation.
Denise
The peach fuzz was really uneven. Some hair follicles woke up before others. Since I was planning to ditch the wig ASAP, I wanted it to look as even as possible right when it grew in.
I wasn't thinking that it would make the hair grow faster.
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