Hair

Hi there,

It is so difficult losing your hair ..... and it does not sound awful to be worrying about this.  For me, losing my hair was a very difficult experience; even more so than losing my breast.  I took others advice and became proactive about the loss of my hair .... I got it cut off before it fell out ...giving me some power over it.  I also bought a really nice wig and hats with hair ..... here is a link to the website and you can use your own hair, too.

http://www.hatswithhair.com/

 Good luck to you.

Remember its only hair and it will come back but ohh so slowly.MUst maintain a sense of humor.

When I was given the diagnosis last week, I started to cry when I found out I would lose my hair.  I didn't cry at hearing I had cancer, would be facing radical surgery and radiation.  I cried at losing my hair through chemo!  

I cannot rationalize my sorrow over this.  It will grow back and the treatment that causes this will save my life. 

However,  I went grocery shopping today - unshowered, slovenly and depressed.  While there, I saw a beautiful woman with a scarf turban.  He eyebrows were faint and her eyelashes non existant.  Funny thing is, she looked a whole lot better than me with my unwashed and unkempt hair! 

She turned the corner with her grocery cart at the right time for me to put all of this in perspective. 

I have now moved on (sort of) to the important issues ahead. 

Well Teel, most of us felt the same way.  I never thought I was vain either, but I had great hair - thick glossy - it was always my best feature.  Losing that scared me more than anything and although I knew it was just hair, IT WAS MY HAIR DAMMIT. 

If your hair is that long you can probably get a ponytail thing made that you can wear with a cap, but don't wait too long because it will start falling out about 2 weeks after your first chemo.  Some have had luck with the cold cap, you could check that out.

My personal experience is that I reluctantly faced up to the inevitable when it started falling out and had my son buzz cut my head, another son joined me.  Your head gets cold, be prepared for that, stretchy little terry cloth turbans were great.  I bought a wig, but wore it rarely.  I got sort of teed off and thought "I have cancer and if they don't damn well want to deal with it they can run off and hide."  "They" being just about everyone else in the world.  As it happened people were really cool with that, there were double takes but I just gave a big smile and a few turned away but most gave a big smile back - some with a thumbs up or V sign.

The fun part comes when your hair grows back.  I had had wavy hair but it came back as an afro, I did enjoy the couple years of curls and my hair changing from month to month.  Now it is back to the same colour, same wavy, same everything.

If there is a woman who hasn't been distressed about being untressed we sure haven't heard much from her on here.  But be sure to get something to keep your head warm - I went into this in the summer and I was still cold.

I also had long hair when I was diagnosed, all the way down to my butt. I knew I was having chemo after diagnosis, so I went and cut all of my much loved hair off and donated it to locks of love. It sucks to loose your hair, but at least I was in control of it and not cancer. After 2 taxotere/cytotoxin treatments I went and got a pixie cut and one more treatment later I threw a head shaving party. I think it was more tramatic to see it all over my pillow every morning than it was to just shave it off! I got all of my friends together, we had a bbq and got a little tipsy (well maybe a lot tipsy) lol and just shaved it off. I never wore a wig and only wore a hat outside and at bed time...being bald makes ya cold! It was hard, but now 1 yr 8 mo later I have beautiful hair again. It's short, but at least its there! Hang in there...it will grow back, I promise.

Sending love!

 Regina

AKA HairSprayMom

Everyone says to be "patient" ..... it's been almost 6 months and I have fuzz on my head but my scalp shows through everywhere.....should I be worried. (this is my second chemo ... when I went through it a few years ago, it grew back thick all over pretty quickly) Does anyone have advice?