Hair
Ok, I posting another hair topic. I know there is one on here, but it's really long and I'm not sure anyone is really answering on that one, as it is sooo long. A lot of good info on there tho.
I am six weeks post Taxol chemo. My hair is coming in full on the back and the back sides, but it is sparse on the top front and the front sides. It looks so ridiculous... it worries me if it doesn't start improving. What a nightmare. Any comments on this. The worst side effect of this whole ordeal, hands down. I don't look at all like myself, that's for sure. It's so embarrassing. Every day I get up, I just dread looking in the mirror. You take pride in staying fit and trying to look sort of good.... who ever thinks they won't ever have hair.
Comments
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Give it a little more time. It probably won't come back exactly like it was before, but I was 5 months past chemo before I even had enough to try and get a trim. I swear I had more hair on my face than my head for the longest time.
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Hi Drained6513, I had my last Taxol on March 23rd and my hair is very thin at the top. Growth is very slow, so I don't know what's going on. I'm still going for Herceptin and Perjeta every three weeks. Maybe this has something to do with the slow growth. My surgery is scheduled for May 18th, so I'm putting the hair worries on hold for now. Good luck to you
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I'm 11 weeks PFC. The hair on my head is growing slowly too, especially the top. It's discouraging. But it is growing faster than I think. I took pictures of my head 3 weeks ago, and there is a big difference in just the past 3 weeks. So my hair is growing, just not as fast as I would like. (I'm also on herceptin till the end of October.)
My eyebrows have mostly grown back, but my eyelashes haven't yet. The hair on my legs seems to be growing the fastest. GRRRRR
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Thanks for your stories. Cive, what do you mean it probably won't come back the way it was before. I've seen some photos on here and in time their hair looks pretty normal. It really is just thick fuzz that is coming in. I know a lot of women has said it does come in as fuzz and then goes eventually back to normal looking hair? Will my hair always look like chemo hair? From the photos I've seen it looks normal after about 4 to 6 months?
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Ok... gonna vent. You try to be gracious about the hair loss.... and patient. I'm in a bad mood.... throwing things around the house... lol Don't want to go anywhere... just another stinking thing to have happen to me. Yes... feeling sorry for myself... damn well pissed off. I started using the Nioxin shampoo, conditioner and scalp treatment just before chemo (taxol) started and used it throughout chemo. I am still using it and I've added Rogaine now, been using it for about 4 days, morning and night. Wash with the Nioxin and then when it's dry put the Rogaine on. I thought it was doing good for six weeks, but some of the photos on here of women's hair at this time looks fuller. It was low dense Taxol, 12 treatments....how bad can it get? It looks like long sparse strings of hair on the side of my head... I take a string of vitamins, multi, B complex, etc... biotin (which I just added after chemo) Omega. I'm getting IV Vit C and other vitamins from the Naturopath weekly, which I just started. What if this doesn't come back full and some what thick? And how long is the question. I hate going out in a wig, they don't look real. This is all consuming, sick of it. 12 weeks of horrible chemo, and now enduring this. Sorry, just friggin mad.
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Mine came in all weird, too. Super curly at the crown, thin and irregular in the front. I thought I looked like a freak. I was able to get it shaped up about 3 mo PFC and it looked pretty good. Since then my eyebrows have come in well, though the eyelashes are sparse. At this point, I am 17mo PFC and my hair looks normal. Still a little wavy, but that's okay. I get compliments on it all the time.
Hang in there!
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Thank you for that response mustlovepoodles. So within 3 months your hair looked fairly good, good enough for a haircut. I guess I will grasp onto that. Just havin a bad night. When I was getting a test done before chemo, a nurse at our local hospital comes up to me while I'm literally getting a chest x-ray and tells me her mother, which was the same age as me, had chemo as well for breast cancer about 2 years ago. And then tells me her mother's hair never grew back properly, but mine looked thicker so probably would do better. I mean what a thing to say... and I was under the impression I was not going to do chemo anyways, as it was just thought I had DCIS at the time, and found out after surgery that it was a bit more than DCIS.... so it then was upgraded to Stage 1A with Pagets. By the way I like your username. My guess is you like poodles, I have 2 and love them too! lol
Also, what is maddening too, is a spec was caught on my mammogram in 2012 and I was sent for a biopsy then to another Radiology Center. The doctor there, didn't bother to do it, said he looked at the mammogram they sent to him and it was fine and benign and did no other tests. So negligent. Thus the next year they saw it again obviously, and assumed it was ok, from what the doctor said it being fine. It was only a calcification and there was never any lump. So, I had no idea there was a problem. I too thought I was fine. I didn't go back for 2 years for the next one, as I just had a few things in life going on and thought it doesn't run in the family, no one has ever had breast cancer in my family ever. Again, I just thought I was fine. Such is life it seems.
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Yes, mine came back curlier and darker. It took about a year before I could do anything with it. I got really fine light hair even on my face, but it went away with time. It's curlier than it was before chemo, but not bad. My hair was waist length when I was diagnosed, I don't think it will ever get that long again.
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Drained, I wouldn't say it looked great at 3 mo. I had it more "shaped up" than cut. The back was longer than the front, so I had a bad, curly mullet. Not a good look. My pixie cut was very short at 3mo, but at least it was in its way back in. 1 year later, you'd never know I lost my hait. It's a little wavier than before, but otherwise looks the same.
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Cive...why do you think your hair could not be as long as it was before, at some point? Is it not growing enough?
And Mustlovepoodles, it is good to know your hair did come back pretty much the same way. It's the waiting game and the wig wearing that is awful. It is really slow growing...as you know. And any length you get right now does not have thickness involved. I can still see my scalp in certain areas and certain lighting. It's embarrassing and frustrating. Oh well. It's also that everyone's hair comes back differently. Will mine come back ok? My guess is it will... but it does stay in the back of your mind. It is such a slow process..that you just can't help but wonder how it is going to come in.
Do you mind me asking what shampoos you used? Im using Nioxin and then rogaine twice a day. I am also juicing it with as many vegies and fruit I can.
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