Grey Chemo Curls - Yikes!

Your hair is just starting to grow in - usually it's very light with little to no color at first.  Then as the follicles "wake up" you may see some darkening.  But my guess is that you may have added some grey since your 20's!    When my hair first started coming back, it came back pretty white.  I spiked it with gel for a kick ass look, and went about my business.  It did gradually darken to the salt-and-pepper it was before.  But if you don't like the color, go ahead and dye it - my SIL dyed her chemo hair bright red when it was just coming back - just for fun! 

If you do color it, make sure your stylist tests the color first on a small piece of hair - chemo hair can take color up very weirdly, so a color you've used for years may come out a completely different shade.  My hairdresser told me about a client who'd be using the same ash blond hair color for years, but the first time she dyed her hair after chemo using that color, it came out sunshine yellow!    Your hair will still be short in December, but it should be long enough where you can get it styled a bit and colored to whatever color you want.You may just have to trial-and-error the color prior to the wedding as you and your stylist figure out how it's going to take up the color, but you've got 6 months to figure that one out.   

FWIW, the curls may eventually start growning out after 6 months or so, although some women's hair stays more curly permanently.  But after a year or so you'll probably be back to pretty much the texture you had before, and it should take up color pretty much like it did before.  I'm three years out of chemo and my hair is back to normal.  

Good luck, and congratulations on having hair again!

I so understand where you are coming from...before cancer, I kept blonde "highlights" in my hair to cover the gray that was starting to come in.  Once my chemo hair came in I noticed the root was darker, but I was not patient enough to wait for it to grow out.  Off to the salon I went and had it colored back to my natural color (before the highlights). Part of my defining the new normal included my appearance.  Part of our emotional healing is our appearance and how we feel about it.  Getting rid of the "chemo" hair made a HUGE difference in my attitude.  I am an optimistic, up beat person, but to look in the mirror and see this hair that the world will see as a "mature" woman not a cancer survivor was not for me!!! I get many compliments on my new/old hair!! So I say GO FOR IT and if it makes you happy and heals your emotional being, then all the better!!!

P.S. My hair processed really quickly and was actually softer after processing than before.  Best of luck with the hair color and have great fun at the wedding!!!

I actually liked my gray and white chemo curls and I got many compliments on it.  I am 54, and my first haircut got rid of the the curls and most of the gray and white.  I am sure everyone is different.  My hair is pretty dark now with a sprinkling of gray and maybe a little wavy.  Good luck!

As soon as I had (barely) enough hair to ditch the wig, I had mine professionally done by someone who was experienced with post-chemo hair. I didn't want to screw it up and have to wait longer. It turned out really cute. Have FUN with your new hair, you deserve it!

I'm surprised we don't all come out snow white after all this stress LOL

I too love my post-chemo hair and am dreading the day that these wonderful thick waves and curls go back to the straight fine flyaway hair I have had all my life before this.

I am in my 60s and pre-chemo was varying shades of medium brown with a "dusting" of white/grey here and there (mostly at the temples, underneath where it didn't show). Never colored my hair, never wanted to, either before or since chemo. My plan was to just let it do its own thing as Nature and my genes intended. My post-chemo hair came in as a 50/50 mix of white and ashbrown/grey. I used to look younger than my real age before; can't say that any longer. I look my actual age (though IMHO not older than that, thankfully).  It took me a few months to come to terms with the color but now I have and honestly can hardly remember what I looked like before (if not for photos). I did have to ditch half my wardrobe because certain colors just don't play well with the new look. For one thing I've learned to avoid bright or saturated colors or colorful patterns because those "compete" with my hair and easily win, making me look washed-out.

Several people have said that the grey mix looks better with my very pale skin and light eyes than my brown hair did. I actually agree with that. The mental adjustment was all about the "suddenly looking my real age" rather than about the color itself.

I can see that the newer hair is coming in straight (curses!!!!) and because I can't bear to lose any of these curls a moment sooner than I absolutely have to, I am going to let it grow until it absolutely positively HAS TO get cut. I really don't care that a mop of thick curls/waves is not "in style" nowadays, or will probably make me look like a BabyBoomer throwback to the Summer of Love; I've reached the age when I can quote Rhett Butler and really mean it: "Frankly my dear, I don't give a d@mn". LOL

The only real disadvantage I can envision to my chemo-grey is that it will peg my age more accurately during job interviews. :-/  I used to be able to get away with looking at least 10 yrs younger than my chronological age (thanks, ancestors!) and in today's job market every little advantage helps. But I'm not about to douse any part of my body, even just hair, with chemicals (says the woman who not long ago went through 12 months in a chemo chair, LOL) merely in order to look younger. I'm obviously not anywhere near the Sex and The City generation anymore, and so when that's what employers are looking for, then I've got nothing in their size. ;-)

I refuse to use the g-word in reference to my hair color, LOL



I once read a fashion article that was written in the 1920s, about styles and colors appropriate for various ages and lifestyles, and have always remembered one particular hair color description. The sentence began "The elegant mature woman with hair of sabled silver..."



"Sabled silver" is SOO much better sounding than the modern "salt and pepper", isn't it? The word "sable" gives instant classy all by itself. ;-)



Just call us the Sisterhood of the Sabled Silver Chemo Curls! :-)



(doesn't that have a great ring to it, LOL)