Hair Color and Dying it

knmtwins

First, am I missing an entire group on HAIR, because there really should be one.

So, 14 months post last chemo, 7 months post last Herceptin, currently on Tamoxifen

I have always had long thick brown hair. I started dying it about 20 years ago, but when it would start to grow out, you saw the blond wispy hairs at the nape and outlining my face, brown, white and some black hair. Now I have shoulder length black and white thin hair. You can see the scalp looking pink around the part line, but I am fortunate that is about the only place the scalp shows, so not VERY thin hair. I need to get a job to pay all these medical bills and have been told, at 50, I probably should dye it. What is safe on post chemo hair? Is there something you can use that will color the white but leave the black, so it looks like there are highlights and lowlights? I hated having just brown hair, so would get highlights put in when I got it colored, but I'm worried that would be WAY too harsh now. Oh, and I have some sort of rash around the nape of my hair. I think it might be from the night sweats tamoxifen is giving me. BTW have always had very sensative skin and scalp.

NancyD

What you want is a semi-permanent color, the kind that washes out after five-six shampoos. Clairol makes one that I used years ago before I started using permanent color. I think it's called Loving Care. To get the low-light effect, pick a color at least two shades lighter than your dark hair. And don't forget to do the allergy test since you have sensitive skin.

The thing I found after chemo was that for the first few months, my hair took the color very differently than before chemo. Using the same color as before produced a very different finish—maybe it was all the gray hair that was being colored at the same time, but it was much "brighter"—my normal, medium auburn was more orange. I kept my wig on for a few extra weeks until I got the color right.

NancyD

The other thing is if your part line still looks "thin" after you color, try a style that does not have a part, or at least a very short part.

rainnyc

There actually is a terrific thread called Hair Hair Hair, full of ladies in the process of losing their hair, missing it, growing it (not fast enough, needless to say), covering it, dying it, taming it, and so forth! You can find it here:

https://community.breastcancer.org/forum/69/topics...

rleepac

When my hair started coming back it was way too gray for my 43 yr old mind so I used henna like I did before chemo. Unfortunately it came out very orange. So then I did a quick application of indigo (also natural and pesticide free) and it made it nice and dark. Almost too dark but it was better than orange or gray.

I get my product from hennaforhair dot com

Perfectly safe and chemical free! If you want black hair they say to do henna followed by indigo. I would just say you don't need to keep the indigo in longer than 30 minutes for dark brown

knmtwins

Thanks ladies and rainyc thank you. I remembered it was there, I just couldn't find it.

SelenaWolf

I have been every colour under the sun both before- and after chemo. When my hair was still growing in post-treatment, my hairdresser advised using only wash-in or semi-permanent colour until we determined how my "new hair" was going to respond to colour. After the first year, when things seemed to settle down, I switched to permanent colour and - four years later - I am have been blond, brunette and am, currently, a red-head. So, no problems there. But I'm still very, very curly...