Hair Hair Hair - Another question

christine47

bikenyc, your descriptions are cracking me up, business/party.  I have about as much hair as you and I am 12 weeks out, so sad.  I have never colored my own at before, but got the color at lunch, I am still wearing a wig at work, so not much to loose trying.  I will let you all know this evening how it goes.

lago

bikenyc you're avatar doesn't do you justice. You are beautiful. You hair did the same thing mine did. gray on the sides but dark in the back… but the dark stuff came in black. I had dark brown  before. Hair color shouldn't stain your skin permanently otherwise we would have parts the same color as our hair. I think my hair dresser would use rubbing alcohol to get any that might fall too much near my face.

kira1234

My hair came back white. I am so ready to color it. Went out to get the Loreal Healthy Look. I'm going to do it today. Wish me luck. Just wish I knew how to get rid of the flaky curls.

sandymess

bikenyc - I had exactly the same question but I went for it anyway. The color did not stain my scalp. It also took a couple of times for the color to actually stay in my hair. The first time or two it seemed to take but faded away within a day or so. So be patient. It will work eventually.

lbrewer

Joseph Mullen at Blackstones in NYC has colored hair for some of the women on the board.  He was working with coloring specifically for breast cancer chemo patients.  I met wqith two other women from the board and we all met at his shop and had our "hair" done.  He was doing it for free then, but don't know about now.  He usaed to post here too.

marjie

bikenyc - you're gorgeous!  My hair came in clear/white, then started to turn darker grey and it is still getting darker, less grey with every little trim.  I was worried about being unhappy after colouring it so I have just left it and so far I am happy with how it has developed.  My pre-cancer hair was bone straight, kind of med to light brown and I had blonde highlights in it.  Seems to have a bit of wave or curl in it now.

bucky317

bikenyc  WOW!!! you look marvelous darling!!!! I can only hope and dream my hair comes in as nice as yours at 5 weeks PFC. I am just under 2 weeks, and I swear I see one dark "sprout" coming in the front. I am keeping an eye on it every day to see if it falls out!  I went to see Andrew Disimone for my wig ( he is owner of the FaceStation Salon) on Lexington Ave. (few blocks from Sloan Kettering) and he was wonderful. He donates some of his time to the ACS,cutting and styling wigs.  He is also a colorist ( worked for Louis Licari) . Just a recommendation for you, in case you want to go the professional route

sweetcorn

bucky317:  I will be two weeks PFC tomorrow, and I don't even have one strand!  You are lucky!

Jane

bdavis

Christine... My girls are good... Still quite a bit of swelling, so time is needed... I come back to Nola in November for stage 2 when they will lipo and lift... Work in progress. All good.



Lago, my hair seems to be fine, nothing has fallen out, so hopefully that is that. I colored it l'oreal champain blond and it seems the chemo hair could only hold the color for a couple of days, so I can see some of the white again, but not as bad as it was... Will try again next week. Had my mx last Thursday, so will give my body two weeks before dying my hair.

julee_stayin_strong

so, just had my second chemo on Monday the 25th and my hair is really coming out now. had my girls cut the length off in the back, but it is just coming out by the handfulls. What do you guys think i should do??? should i buzz it with a large number, or just pull it all out? HELP??? PLEASE RESPOND!!!

mccrimmon324

Hey Julee, I buzzed my hair when it started coming out in clumps, thought it was easier to deal with. 

Wendyspet

I got mine cut short before it started leaving, maybe 3" bangs and layered in back.  It is now really thin on top, but I still have some on the sides.  I am just going to keep vacuuming my pillow and seeing how it goes.  I am halfway through TCH, but I don't see anything new sprouting on the top at all!  Maybe I'm giving it a head start?? (wishful thinking, ha ha)

I thought it was really was bad to have handfuls of hair come out during washing and combing, but I got used to it.  Vacuuming my pillow and the bathroom is now part of the morning routine, but I'm saving so much time just putting on a wig! 

hoovergirl82

Greetings.

I just had my 5th of 6 taxotere treatments yesterday.  I feel like my hair is starting to grow back.  However, I am told I will continue to be having chemotherapy.

My question is, for those of us who continue on chemo, will our hair grow back?  Should I invest in Minoxidil?  I take Biotin when I think of it.  

I want my hair back!

Thanks!

dragonfly1

It's only been a week since the last hair growth pics but I'm playing around with photobucket to see what I can do so thought I'd post this anyway. I think people like my wig better than my real hair (probably because I never took much time to do anything with my real hair and the wig is perfectly styled every day:) Won't they be shocked when they see my super short dark hair in a few more weeks...I'll post more pics when I have more hair growth to share. It's growing relatively fast-even in the past week.  

P.S. I'm not usually that shiny-Ha!Ha! that was a pic on the way to a whitewater trip in boiling heat in Costa Rica 2 months before I was diagnosed-Hmmm. wish I had that energy right now! 

christine47

dragonfly,  Like you I have had more compliments on the wig than my real hair!  It is amazing how good some of the wigs are, esp shorter styles.  You also look adorable in your hat.  I can't see your regrowth picture.  I am so loving my ball caps (still wig for work), I hope to post some shoots when I have my technical help home from camp this weekend (14 year old son).

ksmatthews

dragonfly LOVE your wig!

bikenyc

Julee - I put my hair in braids then had friends cut them off (I have them in a box...I know weird). We kept cutting the hair down through different short styles and documenting (the mowhawk was the best). Then they buzzed me down to a 1/4 inch.  A little longer might help you through the transition, but once it started coming out, even that was annoying.  It itched under the wig and I would sit on the couch pulling little scruffs of it out.  In retrospect, I might have just shaved it all the way down...less messy and itchy.   I know it's traumatic, but the worst part is waiting for it to happen.  Once it's gone, wigs are easier and it just feels better...actually kinda cool feeling.

Thanks for the hair support!  All my friends think I'm crazy when I talk about how I can feel more hair every day (I'm still just bald to them).

I actually broke down and put a semi-perm rinse on it to cover the white.  I picked a med brown and it did cover the white, but also turned the rest sort of orangish.  Now I look like an orangutan. Think it's time to follow up on some of your stylist recommendations! (lbrewer...I know that place...lived a few blocks away for years...will def cruise by).

YamahaMama

Bikenyc, I took photos of my ponytails in a plastic baggy, right before I sent them to Locks of Love--I'm sure I would have mine in a box somewhere if I hadn't decided to donate it, so I understand completely!  I had about 5 or 6 inches cut off about a month before my DX, but I still had very long hair.  Unfortunately, it was so fine it didn't seem like there was very much there.  Once I knew for sure it was coming out, about 14 days after my first chemo, I had the hairdresser put it in lots of little ponytails and cut them off close to the scalp so I could donate as much length as possible, then she shaved it.  I had my DH shave it even shorter a few days later, but the short hairs would still catch on the pillow and didn't feel very good.  I then let him shave my head with my electric razor.  That felt the best for me...it was short enough that it didn't catch on things and "bend backwards." 

My DD tells me the hair that's coming in is blonde, with an occasional dark hair sticking up, but I'm afraid it might be gray and she was just being kind!  It's so fine, it's hard to tell yet what the color really is.  I LOVE to run my fingers through what is there, though!  It may be nothing more than fuzz at this point, but I can FEEL it! 

My avatar brings back a lot of hair memories for me...  My DD, on the left, had recently cut off her dredlocks, so it was very short.  She cut those off for my mom, who is on the right, because my mom hated her dreds.  My mom was wearing a wig, because she lost her hair to radiation for colon cancer--she passed in April, 2010.  I'm in the center, with my hair hanging past my breasts, pre-BC.  My mom used to be a hairdresser when I was young, and she would cut my sister and I's hair, even though we wanted it long, because it was easier to take care of.  For that reason, I stubbornly held on to long hair, even into my late 40's.  Maybe this is going to "force" me to start wearing my hair at a length that is more suitable for a woman of my age, huh? 

YamahaMama

This is a really strange thing to admit, but this reminded me my sister and I, when we were kids, would wrap towels on our heads and leave the tail hanging so we could pretend we had long hair.  Anyone else ever do this???  I'm almost tempted to do that again! 

Mouse6

I have totally done that too. Hey, if a girl doesn't have fantasy then what?

YamahaMama

Mouse6

Ps...I actually looked forward to starting over again. I mean, who ever gets the chance to cut off all their chemically teated hair and start a whole new head of hair...we do!!! I had to find the small highlights during treatment, and for me, that was one of them. Also, when I didn't feel well, it was so nice not to have to worry about making my hair look presentable. I rather got to liking my bald head actually.

YamahaMama

Mouse6, I, too, found it kind of nice not to have to worry about my hair when I was getting ready!  Not that I did much to my hair, other than blow dry it, comb it and go, but I didn't realize how much quicker I could get ready when I didn't have to blow dry it!  As for the chemically treated part, I was still a natural blonde, and age and sun gave me natural highlights, so I had never colored my hair.  I guess chemo may give me a good reason to actually play with the color and length of it! 

Anderkk1

I am 3 weeks PFC tomorrow and very anxious to grow my hair back.  I have a huge bump on the back of my head (bony cyst) that is so ugly.  I always said I'd be an ugly bald person and lo and behold - I am  (atleast from the back, I think).  So I am anxious to grow my hair back and see how long it has to be to mask that bump.  Losing my hair has been so much harder than my masectomy.

Daydreamernh

 Losing my hair the first time was the hardest for me. I was handling it all okay until the day I saw the first clumps come out and then I just lost it. I have perfectly straight hair, I loved my color, dirty blonde with all natural highlights. In the summer it would be sand blonde. Never colored or permed it. Tried the wigs the first time around and I hated them, just was not comfortable wearing them. Fortunatly  I have a very nice shaped head with no scars and bumps. Left it that way. I did love the curly that came in for a year when it regrew.

This time around it thinned from my first two treatments of Navelbine and Xeloda and now after my first 3 weeks of Taxetere it is falling out quickly.  Considered the cold caps but too much work, I have enough to worry about. So bald I will be before the weekend I am sure. Lots of long cheerful earrings, scarfs and occasional turbans ( give me that Elizabeth Taylor look). May even take a ride to the beach and cover my scalp in  henna designs (that will raise the eyebrows of the bosses). This may sound crazy but this is the only time I am comfortable playing with weird colors and scarfs, crazy earrings and anything else affecting my scalp and hair and look. Gotta have some fun! 

alamik

I finished chemo the beginning of June and now have a little sproutage going on. Right before starting chemo, I had my hair cut page boy length and donated the rest to Locks of Love. After 2 treatments and the hair coming out in hand fulls, I had my hubsters buzz it down to about an eight of an inch. The stubble was really uncomfortable to sleep on so getting a very slippery satin or silk pillow case was a godsend!! I also got tired of finding the little hairs everywhere so I used a sticky lint roller a few times a day to collect all the loose hairs. Finally there came a day when I had no stubble left! whaa!! 

Now that I am sprouting again, I am back to using the slippery satin pillow case and it feels soooo good against my head!!

YamahaMama

Anderkk1, sounds like you are right behind me...I finished chemo on July 5.  My hair did start growing back a little bit toward the end of my treatments, but since I finished, I started using Nioxin, and I feel really good about the regrowth at this point.  I agree wholeheartedly about losing the hair vs. mastectomy...I've often told people losing my hair was harder than losing a breast.  I could wear padded bras, etc., before, but the wig just isn't the same for some reason...  In fact, I've only worn it 4 or 5 times.  It just wasn't "me," and it was so much easier to put on a hat.  Although, lately I've been wearing a "halo" on a pretty regular basis, and just put a mc doo-rag over that.  WAY more comfortable than the full wig, and it actually looks just like my own hair!

Carrol2

dragonfly looking good, your hair will all be back in no time. I also was blonde pre chemo and now I am back to my natural dark brunette with a little grey. no sure what i will do next.

marjie

Carrol2 - I love the style and the colour on you.

sewingnut

I have to tell you girls your pics give me hope.  I am 8 wks PFC and only have clear fuzz. Kind of went from the Uncle Fester look to Grandpa Munster now, 'cept his hair was darker  =;o)