Hair Hair Hair - Another question

I guess I just need to vent. I am so depressed about the condition of my hair after chemo. It started growing back about halfway through Taxol. which I was very excited about. That hair is now about a half inch long. I'm 4 weeks PFC now and I have no other new hair coming in. None! The top of my head is still mostly bald and I have various other bald patches all over my head. The little hair I do have is very sparse and mostly grey. I had NO grey hair before chemo. I just want to cry. I could deal with the half inch of hair IF it covered my whole head. I am planning on getting extensions as soon as it is an inch long. I was hoping by the beginning of May for that, but at this rate I'm still going to be bald. I see everyone's gorgeous after chemo hair pictures. Everyone has beautiful hair covering their whole head, even when it was first coming back. I am one week into radiation and will be starting hormone blockers when I'm finished. I just read that those drugs cause hair loss, thinning and/or very slow growth. I'm afraid I'm stuck in this awful wig forever. Thoughts anyone? Sorry to be such a downer. This is just horrifying to me every time I see myself in the mirror. Thanks for listening.

I was going to post a photo of myself but I'm too embarrassed for all of you to see just how awful I look.

seq24 - 4 wks PFC is still early. I had few hairs left after Taxol. At 4 wks PFC, I had very fine patches of peach fuzz. Everyday I could see the patches growing. Around 5 wks PFC, I did buzz the straggly hairs that were ridiculously longer than the new hairs growing. At 6 1/2 months PFC, my hair is about 2 in. long. You can see my progress pics at this link.

https://community.breastcancer.org/forum/69/topics/707348?post_id=4849817

OK, Seq, I'd only do this for YOU!

First, here is a pic of me at 7 weeks PFC. I'm still practically bald with no brows etc. You're only at 4 wks PFC!

Then here is my hair at 18 wks PFC

I've been so discouraged over how slowly my hair is growing, but when I go back and look at pics I took, I see it's really growing. Someone recommended taking pictures periodically because we forget what it was like just a few weeks ago. My brows are still really sparse, and my hair was not the fastest growing even before bc. The first hair came in almost translucent. It is gradually switching to darker, but does also have some grey in it. I figure I'm just going to color it. Oh, and it seems to be growing in every which way and some straight up!

Hang in, I totally understand your discouragement. No one except my husband has seen me with nothing covering my head.

Yours WILL come back. We all just feel that once we're done with treatment, we should be DONE!

Dara--Oh THANK YOU!! Your hair is coming in so thick and beautiful. I appreciate the encouragement. You're right, when we're done with treatment, then we need to be done with everything that made us miserable throughout this whole ordeal. And the thing, as you know, that made me the most miserable was the fact that I lost my hair. I almost didn't do chemo for that exact reason.

Thank you for your caring and support my friend!

Thanks for sharing Karen. I had to look twice. I thought I had accidentally posted a picture of my own head. I have one that looks EXACTLY like this that I took on Jan 15, a week before I finished chemo. I'm even wearing the same color top in the photo. We also share the same name too. If I wasn't so embarrassed I'd post my photos on here. Maybe some day. How many weeks PFC are you now? I appreciate your support.

Enviable hair! I have been using wigs

Myleftboob, I had castor oil recommended by several people and also when I started using Nioxin, found the it contains 3 different castor oils as well. There must be something to it!

Don't worry about being 8 wks with no hair. air grows super slowly at first, especially with the peach fuzz, then the fuzz seems to be replaced with regular hair. Mine is still super super short so growing in unbelievably slowly. I think my age is against me and my hair never grew all that fast to begin with.

I know just what you mean about noticing hair on others now. I remember before my hip replacement I would really notice women who walked quickly and naturally even in the grocery store. I guess we notice what we really want.

Try also taking Biotin. It's supposed to help with both hair and nails.

https://metastaticbreastcancernowwhat.wordpress.co...

You look fantastic!

Lollipop, great photo! I just counted up and I should be around your stage in August. We never think in terms of how long it takes to get hair grown in. Your hair looks adorable.

Thank you everyone for the kind comments. I have always had long hair so I'm still trying to get used to the short. It came back darker than what I had and less grey, which I am happy about! Seq24, I take 10,000 mcg of biotin per day. I have a friend who also had Taxotere 1 year before me and her hair never grew back. I am very thankful mine did

Westthebest--I know what you mean about being conscientious. I lost most of my hair at the end of September. I have worn a wig daily since then. I absolutely hate it but it's better than having anyone see me without it. It was bad when I was mostly bald and it's just as bad now that the hair is coming back. This has been the absolute worst part of all of this. I saw an ad in a magazine today with a picture of a female version of Albert Einstein. My hair has a good start to looking just like that. Yikes!! If you decide to wear a wig, did you know that the American Cancer Society will give you a free wig. The one I got there is a human hair wig and it is the one I wear every day, even though I have a synthetic wig that I bought and paid big $$ for.

Hi Seq24, I actually have wigs that are worn out from 5 years ago...I quit wearing them a few months ago, before I was diagnosed again...unfortunately the grow out time took forever and it looked horribly unhealthy. My comfort zone was the wigs. I have a new one on order as I am concerned what the CMF will do....hair pretty thin...only about 30-40% came back...Fingers crossed! I also hate people finding out I'm "sick" again:( Dang! What a journey.

Hello everyone,

First of all...beautiful hair! I have been lurking for a while trying to gather as much info on hair regrowth after chemo, rads and ongoing anastrozole. My hair has come back but unfortunately very thin especially on the top and the upper middle sections of my head. I had chem starting last Feb and my surgery June 2016. Radiation Sept 2016...

My hair had been growing in nicely and I was pretty happy in the beginning but I feel that once I started anastrozole things quickly went downhill for me. After all, it didn't take very long for my hair to quickly start thinning in the front and sides 😯 I have other side effects from anastrozole but for now I can deal with them, takes a lot for us women to give in to anything quickly 😊 The hair loss however, is killing me.

I started biotin recently and hopeful but I want to throw everything at this and to be prepared in case it doesn't help. I recently saw an ad for keranique and wondered if anyone ER+ was cleared to try any of these hair regrowth treatments besides Rogaine. When did you truly see an improved difference after using hair regrowth product and how long before you saw a diff. We are going on vacation later this year and I want to feel comfortable swimming and not worrying so much about my scalp showing 😔 Thank you for any help.

Help please 😣

Hi Kali. I finished chemo in October and started anastrozole the same time as rads. My hair is growing in but very slowly. I'm doing the biotin and also using Nioxin hair system. Years ago I had tried Keranique but didn't see any difference with it I was just trying to get thicker longer hair. Most of my hair is about 3/4 - 1" long but have a couple of patches on top that seem shorter. The Nioxin has shampoo, conditioner, scalp treatment, and I also purchased their hair density treatment.