Hair Hair Hair - Another question

bdavis

I thought about doing that... But knew i'd have to cut it before any chemo and i just couldn't do it...



My hair is now long enough to brush to the side.. If i don't brush it, it looks dishelved

SpecialK

bdavis - mine was so long that I cut the ponytails off and my hairdresser gave me a cute short cut.  I figured I needed to get used to it being short because it will be short for the foreseeable future.  Also when it started falling out they were shorter hairs instead of long ones.  When is your new surgery, or have you already had it?  How are you feeling?  I am glad your hair is long enough to go in a direction - mine is now uniformly 1/4 inch but still looks like dust on my head, just more organized!

bdavis

I had a minor surgery yesterday, getting rid of the dead stuff... Tuesday i am having a diep flap (tummy tuck) surgery to replace what i lost.

PSU222

HELP!!  What can I use to stimulate my hair to start growing?  It's almost 8 weeks PFC and where it it??? 

bdavis** Hope you are feeling good and please know that I will keep you in my prayers this week. 

SpecialK

psu22 - don't panic - I am just starting to have mine fill in and I am at almost 11 weeks.  It is still sparse but hair everywhere else just started returning strongly in the last week or so, (brows, lashes, legs, NOSE!!!).  My hairdresser did tell me to start taking Biotin and gave me the 4-step Bosley products that include a stimulator as the 4th step.

PSU222

SpecialK**  Thanks, I am open to trying anything at this point.  I am done!!!  I hate this wig and just want to be normal again....  Sorry, I have just had it...

SpecialK

psu22 - I know what you mean!  I went to the Bucs/Patriots game yesterday.  My husband works for Special Operations Command at MacDill AFB and they man the attack flags (big pirate flags at the top of the stadium walls) for the football games.  I went with him and between the two shirts to camoflauge the uneven TE's, and the wig and baseball hat I was sweating like a fountain.  We were there, outside, in 90 degree heat from 4:00 - 11:00 p.m.  What was I thinking?

YaYa5

i went out in public today without anything on my head.  i had it shaved last week as it was beginning to shed.  i just decided ... this is the real me.  if you don't like it, talk to your therapist.  i had to go to the hospital for some records and the ladies in the office mentioned that they liked my hair.  i asked if it bothered them and one lady said, 'absolutely not.  and i'm sure that almost everyone who sees you offers up a prayer for your healing.'  that made me feel good and happy.

PSU222

SpecialK**  That made me laugh..  When I am in those situations I just look at everyone else and I am so jealous.  Next summer we will look back on this and wonder how we ever got through those days!!

SpecialK

psu22 - I am glad I made you laugh!  I find myself in situations frequently that I can choose to laugh or cry - I always choose laugh!  While we were there they were advertising the BC awareness game on Oct. 3, you know, where the players wear pink jerseys and all.  I was diagnosed on 9/27 right before Pinktober - it was devastating because I couldn't escape BC - it was EVERYWHERE!!!  I was thinking maybe I go to that football game with no wig and a "Cancer picked the wrong b*&%h shirt!

brca1babe

gals,

anyone know if noxin does anything?

or rogaine?  would that be safe or help post chemo?

PSU222

SpecialK**   Yes, you should go to that game and wear that shirt.  A year later and you have earned the right to do this..  The temp. will be cooler and no sweating.  Now that sounds like a good time!!

YaYa5**  I am glad you encountered this kind person today.I do believe she was right. 

ksmatthews

brca1babe I am using the Nioxin system for thinning hair.  Have been for 2 weeks.  I really dont know if it works or not, but I want to think it is. I can tell my hair is growing.

SpecialK

psu222 - I think I just might wear that shirt and go wigless.  Of course first I have to summon the nerve to buy that particular shirt.  DH was saying tonight that I should go without the wig next week - he is a crazy man!  I think I might still be sweaty on October 3 - FL is a hot place!  Usually Oct. is not as bad though.  I wore my "underhair" last night - my own long hair that was cut off and made into a piece with a cloth top.  That is why I had a baseball cap on.  DH says as we approach the security gate, "you have to take your hat off for the security search" then shoots me the frozen "oh crap" look as he realizes which hair I am wearing!  Fortunately they didn't make us take the hats off - it is the pre-season so apparently nobody is hiding any guns under their hats!

FLwarrior

I had 3 rounds of a cocktail of 5FU, cytoxan and epirubicin and I started loosing my hair 14 days in.  It started with tingling and odd sensations. I lost it fairly evenly, not in clumps, but it was SO THIN after 2 weeks I cut it 1/4 long. I never did "shave" it completely bald.  Then I had 3 rounds of taxotere...it started growing back in during the taxotere treatments.  It is about 3/4 inch now, but it is a DREADFUL salt & pepper with WHITE on the sides and in the front!  I am too young for hair like this.   I wear my wig if I go out of the house (even to check the mail or take the trash out).  I have a huge complex about it.  My hair was long and blond down the middle of my back before chemo.  My hair has always been my badge of courage. No one but my mom has seen me hairless. I bought some henna hair color, but I have not been brave enough to use it yet.  My eye brows are coming back in YEAH!!!  I had surgery on Tuesday...and D#M# IT!!! The tape they used to keep my eyes closed removed 3 of the 4 EYELASHES that I DID have!!! AARRGG!!!  How fast are your eyelashes coming back in?

SpecialK

My eyelashes are coming in the slowest of everything.  I have half of them on each side and the new little ones coming in but I have to look pretty hard to find them!

YamahaMama

Way to go, Yaya5!  Wish I were that brave... 

Racy

PSU222, I feel for you waiting on your hair.  I will say a prayer that it appears very soon. In the meantime, get Nioxin and biotin.  I am not sure how much biotin you should take.  Some ladies on this thread take a lot. Perhaps ask at the dispensary?

I don't know if Nioxin stimulates growth but in my experience it does stop hair falling out. Regarding Minoxidil (Rogaine), I am not sure if that works either.  However, I am doing an experiment. I have a small bald patch that I have had since childhood.  I am trying the Minoxidil on that and if it fills in it will confirm that the product works.

DivineMrsM

I've been going wigless since we took a trip to Erie Pa on August 5.  The wig became too hot and itchy in the heat. (SpecialK, I don't know how you continue to wear one in FL!) My hair is a between 1/4 - 1/2 inch long.  I never wore the wig when we returned from vacation and gradually started running into people I know who saw me without the wig.  

I work as an aide in a local elementary and have not worked all summer.  The whole school system had a meeting yesterday and I went wigless.  Most everyone there knew about my health, so they took my short hair in stride.

One teacher, tho, asked me if I'd lost my hair, or did I just cut it that short.  I told her my hair had fallen out in Feb. and was just now growing back.  She had seen me many times over those months and said, "you had hair at your son's graduation party" (in June).  I told her I was wearing a wig and she was shocked.  But mostly, I felt her questions were rude.  As if I would really cut my hair so effing short.  Like I was doing it for attention.  That's kind of what ticked me off. 

lifelover

I go without my wig most of the time although now that the weather is becoming cooler I do wear my wig a bit more.  But it makes my head itch and sweat and the scarves also are uncomfortable around my ears.

Mostly people are okay with my baldness but yesterday I was walking near my home and one older woman just glared at me and stared at me with her hands on her hips as I approached her and continued to watch me as I walked down the road.  When I walked by her I just shook my head and kept on going.  How rude!!!!  What did she think I was going to rob her house or attack her?  Most intelligent people wouldn't behave that way. 

But I refuse to let it bother me - people like her are not the norm.  I'm comfortable going bald and I won't be intimidated.

Oh well, perhaps I'm being oversensitive but I do think people can be judgemental and forget to think beyond their little "box".

LuvRVing

YaYa5 - love your attitude and your avatar - great smile, and you look radiant!

Michelle

ksmatthews

Michelle love you avitar!

bdavis

I had surgery last month and didn't have the energy to wear a scarf or wig,so just went with the short hair in public...i think when we stop thinking what other people think it makes it easier to go wigless... My last chemo was may 10, and my hair is long enough now to brush and guide to the side a bit and encourage "bangs"... I also had that salt n pepper color and am a natural blond FLWarrior... And had my hair stylist color it ash blond at 13 weeks, and it is much better... It covered that chemo white that was speckling my head... Now i just have a little gray , and i mean little, at the temple, which is gray not the chemo white... So i feel much better. Some day i will have my long blond hair again... So i think i am 15 weeks out and feel my hair almost looks deliberate... Almost, not quite yet. No funny looks, and a couple of compliments... I am told how thick my hair is, but it was always thick... My avitar is pre-chemo, a couple of years ago... I should post a more recent one... I did post a pic on this thread from the week i started chemo... Can't wait to hair that hair again!

jackifp

Yaya5 - your post was the last little push I needed to take off the cap. I teach, and yesterday was first meeting all summer, the whole district (maybe 200 total) meets for breakfast and intros of new staff. I walked in with cap on, saw a friend who knows, sat to talk, took a deep breath...and took off the cap. All was well, lots of hugs, none of those pity looks I want to slap. Kept it that way the rest of the day. Guess I'll do the same on Tuesday with the kids. It's high school, and I would at least have taken it off to show each class just to short-circuit the gossip mill. So thanks!

YaYa5

good for you, jackifp!  i'm so proud of you because i know it's hard.  i'll bet your students will see you as strong and courageous.  as bdavis said ... i think when i quit worrying about what others think, i'll be going bald all the time!  have fun on tuesday!

Jen1832

Hi girls - I quit wearing a headcovering at just under 9 weeks.  I am at 9 weeks now.  I sort of have male patterned baldness, but the rest of my hair is coming in fairly well.  I am taking biotin and am also using the Bosley 4 step system.  I have only had good responses.  Yes, everyone knows that I had chemo because I have so little hair, but the hats/scarves told them the same thing.  It is so much more comfortable to have your head uncovered.  I went with my DH to get a haircut today and they asked me if I wanted one too...LOL.  I told them I was happy to have what I do.

 My message is to just do it, go topless.  It is okay.  It feels wonderful!

bettereveryday

When I was going for chemo, after all the hair was gone, I usually wore a scarf or hat I put on when I got out of the car to go in, then it happened, one day when I went to put on my scarf, I'd left it at home and had no choice, I had to go in without it.  I had to go in through a park where a group of women from the hospital were sitting and they stared at me the whole way, when I got close, one of the women spoke up and said  "We're so sorry for staring, but you are the most beautiful bald-headed woman we've ever seen."  Every stare is not a hostile one, to the people who love you, it doesn't matter, and the ones that don't love you, that's their problem, let them handle it.  Do what you're comfortable with. 

Lots of Love.

DivineMrsM

It's been two weeks since I started going without my wig.  I've learned that the more I go without it, the less I think about it.   

sweetbean

I've been using Nioxin, but it has parabens in it.  Any thoughts on that?  

FLwarrior

You ladies are much braver than I!  I was so freaked out about having to take off my wig off at the hospital for surgery earlier this week.  You see, I work at the hospital and I went on medical leave and did not tell anyone (except my boss) why. I just did not/do not want to tell people. Much to my SURPRISE and DELIGHT they said there was no reason to have to take the wig off...they just put a hair cap over the wig, like they would have over my hair, and I went through surgery with my wig on!  I know, I know that is absolutly crazy, but I felt SO much better!  The wig never left my head the entire time I was in the hospital!  I don't wear it in my house, but I wear it any time I am outside my house...and I live in Florida!