Losing eyebrows and eyelashes after finishing chemo?

DG10004

Hi everyone,

I just finished my last of 6 cycles of chemo! When I first lost my hair, the stylist I saw for my wig warned me that although I may hang onto my eyebrows and eyelashes throughout the treatments I would "likely" lose them at some point, even if it's weeks after my last chemo treatment. Does anyone have experience with this? If you did lose your eyebrows and lashes after ending chemo, how long after the last treatment did they fall out? I'm really hoping mine stick around, so it would be nice to know what the time frame is, where, if I haven't lost them, I probably won't?!

Thank you!

MuddlingThrough

I had Taxol, weekly, for 12 weeks. I lost my hair between weeks 4 and 6. About four or five weeks after my last chemo, my eyebrows and eyelashes came out. I had no lashes and just one or two stray eyebrow hairs. The eyebrows grew back fairly quickly, within a couple of weeks. The lashes took longer and are very short. I've read that this might happen more than once. I hope not, but I won't be caught off guard.

Billb464

hi, I had my last chemo December 10 and didn’t lose my eyebrows and eyelashes until 4-6 weeks after. They came back in pretty quick, and very thick, but I have noticed lately that my eyebrows are thinning out again so I wonder if I’m going to loose them again!

star2017

I didn't lose mine after, but toward the end. It was disconcerting! But apparently it has something to do with hair cycles. Eyebrows are back and eyelashes are almost all back, 12 weeks PFC.

star2017

Also, the reason it feels like we lose the lashes/brows again, like Muddling mentioned, is that now all the hairs are on the same growth cycle, so the normal shedding happens all at the same time. It takes time for them to get on different schedules again.

Meow13

Did your fingernails/toe nails get through ok? Also how about your teeth? Just curious how rough it was.

NotVeryBrave

My eyebrows started to thin in sections towards the end of chemo. They came back in as they were leaving so they were never all gone. My eyelashes fell out maybe 4-6 weeks after the last round of chemo. They were much, much slower to return. I never had any repeat problems.

I found Lash Discovery mascara worked the best as the lashes came back so slowly and were tiny. It has a super small brush that helped to "find" the lashes.

I had a deep horizontal ridge across all of my nails from the first (and strongest) round of chemo. That grew out in about 6 months. Towards the end of Herceptin I noticed my nails were doing this weird lifting thing where the line between the pink and white areas got jagged, especially the ring and pinky fingers. I think that is finally resolving.

Meow13

oh good, I always think that must be awful having a nail lift or fall off.

Ingerp

Following this, DG. So far I'm not seeing anyone who lost hair but did *not* lose brows/lashes?

P.S. And congrats on finishing chemo! That has got to feel wonderful!!

CBK

My fingernails only had some mild ridges and grew like weeds... I had a problem with losing my pinky toenail... and this crazy lifting of my big toenails.  I just had them filed down 6 months PFC. 

Even though I showed them to my MO and her nurse repeatedly I apparently acquired a fungus from the big toenails lifting and moisture getting under the nail. UGH!!   

klvans

I never lost all of my eyelashes or eyebrows, during or after chemo. My eyelashes thinned but I always had some. I kept 2/3 rds of my eyebrows.

Ingerp

Good to hear, klvans!!

msphil

I too lost lashes and eyebrows a little before and after chemo completely grew back but never were thick again but they have so much they can do to create them that didn't exist when I went thru treatment. msphi idc stage2 0\3 nodes 3mo chemo before and after Lmast got married yes was planning Our wedding then 7wks rads and 5yrs on Tamoxifen. Praise God this yr 24 yr Survivor.

70charger

lost my lashes during treatment & 2 more times pfc, lost only half of one eybrow during treatment. 6 months pfc lost my toenails.

AnxietyGirl85

I'm about 3.5 weeks PFC, and I'm still losing eyelashes and eyebrow hair - I started losing them about halfway through my Taxol treatments (I did 4 DD rounds), but it got worse after the last treatment, and while it's slowed down, it's still happening. I have a small fraction of my eyebrow hair left right now (I had VERY thick eyebrows before all of this nonsense), and so few eyelashes left that I could probably count them on two hands, and the few hairs that are left continue to fall out, with no new regrowth yet. The shedding can't possibly last much longer, there's hardly anything left to fall out!

I'm really hoping that they'll start to grow back soon, along with the hair on my head (I've been bald since early March) - I'm really terrible at drawing on eyebrows every day!! (I'm not a makeup person at all, I've literally never done my own makeup before, beyond the occasional swipe of clear mascara and smidge of eyeliner for a special occasion.)

As for nails, I haven't had any trouble with them at all through 8 rounds of chemo. No lifting, no ridges, no discolouration, nothing, and they've continued to grow as per usual (and they're just as hard and strong as they usually are, too). I didn't get any neuropathy from the Taxol, either, so maybe I've dodged that bullet.