Chemo curls

i have read several times that after about 18 months your hair goes back to normal - as far as curls/straightness, etc.  my hair came back more curly but as it is growing longer it is getting back to what i had pre-chemo other than the color - i am 17 months post chemo so i am on target w/ what the majority says.

My hair started growing back when I was done with AC but starting Taxol.  By the time I was 6 months out from AC I needed a slight trim to even things up.  I never had curl but I had wave (which I loved).  It went away about 3-4 months and a few haircuts later.  So yes, getting  a trim might get rid of some of the early curl and help you see how the newest hair is growing out.

My hair was also solid white for the first several  months, which I loved... now is back to brown/gray, although WAY more gray than when I started all this!

Hi, Fearless,

My hair was stick-straight before chemo, and it is back to being stick-straight now.  But, I'm 2+ years post-chemo.  I think it took about 18 months to lose those chemo-curls -- I looked like Little Orphan Annie for way too long.

Unfortunately, neither trimming your hair nor letting it grow out longer will make the curls go away any faster.  Haircuts will take off the ends, which will take off the curls; and as it continues to grow out, you'll eventually have straight hair.

So, the answer to your question is, "Yes, ... usually."

otter

I haven't read a lot about this yet since I am in the falling out phase.  But if I had brown gray hair before what color does it back?  White??

I am currently undergoing A/C, and soon after its completion, I too am starting Taxol. Its nice to know that there is even a slight chance that my hair will start growing bk while undergoing Taxol. Just out of curiosity what stage cancer dis you have, and what type?   

Get a good haircut; if you can find a hairdresser who specializes in curly hair and/or has experience with post-chemo hair that is a plus. My chemo curls lasted a year and then BAM it was frizzy and after a good layered cut it was absolutely straight again. Very strange!

Oh gosh, I am so envious that you have that much hair at 6 months! I'm 5 months post-Taxol and my hair isn't yet long enough to curl even if it WANTED to! I think the longest strands are only about 1". It used to be straight before, but now it seems to be a mix of some straight/some 'bendy' (more a wave than a curl, although again there's not enough length to any one strand for it to 'make a circle', LOL!). So I have no clue yet whether it's going to end up wavy, curly, or a mix of straight plus either of the above.

I'm still wearing my scarves, because IMHO if my hair isn't long enough to use a comb on, it isn't long enough to want to show to the world. :-)

As to color, I used to be 75% brown tones/25% grey; now it's 50/50 white-and-black which means overall impression grey. Not a fan, but even less a fan of coloring, so I'm just going to wait out the color change until it goes back to what it was. I'm hoping it starts doing that next summer which would be a year from Taxol-end, but I'm still on Herceptin until the spring which I'm sure is why the regrowth/regeneration rate is so slow. Reality is probably going to be (since Herceptin takes 5-6 months to completely clear the body after finishing treatment) that my hair won't start to revert back to its former state/color until early 2012.

I do notice that the gals who had faster "hair action" are often those who are HER2- and so I really do think Herceptin slows down the whole hair-recovery action.