How do you Wash Hair after a Double Mastectomy?

The first time I had 4 drains. Was allowed to shower 48 hours later. Second time 3 weeks ago, one drain. Again, shower 48 hours later. Depends on your surgeon.

First time, washing hair was”interesting “. Pinned the drains together and just did the best I could. Didn’t have much hair anyway thanks to chemo. Could bend over your tub and get DH to help. A hand held shower head attachment would help.

I am sevens weeks out and washed my hair the night before surgery. Then I had an already scheduled hair appt 8 days after surgery so I had my hair dresser wash me twice and scrub really hard because I felt so disgusting. Then another 10 days later I went to Great Clips and had them wash me twice and scrub hard too. I had four drains and they were covered with clear tegaderm so I was able to shower after 48 hours. Wore IV tubing like a necklace with drains threaded thru when I took a shower. Can also use a lanyard or shoelace and safety pin drain loops to it for shower. At 2 weeks he let me raise arms out straight from shoulders and but not above head, and at 4 weeks after both sets of drains were out (had four drains for three weeks then 2 for one more week) I could raise arms above head and wash my own. But I still leaned over in shower and did T-Rex arms as much as I could.

So I got my hair washed three times basically in 4 weeks. I won’t say I liked it but it was doable. My husband had already done so much I didn’t want to ask him to wash me. Plus I would of had to lean over the tub with hand held sprayer and didn’t know if that would be ok to lean on the implants. 🤷♀️

I went to the great clips near my house. $5.75.

Good luck!

I still have a bathtub/shower combo. So I kneeled on a towel in the bathtub, scrunched over and washed my hair underneath the spigot, carefully bending low enough that my T-rex arm movements didn't go up too high.

Chris,

Because I'd had a friend who had a BMX several years ago who by her own admission "did everything wrong," I benefitted from her (she was the one with the dog ears, which weren't her fault). She couldn't even turn on a light switch at 6 weeks because she wouldn't move her arms. So the night of my surgery I started moving my arms around and to my delight, I could even move them above my head. I cleared this with surgeons, but they encouraged it. You should ask your docs, but I would say the amount of movement to wash your hair would be good for you. Because I had been stretching for weeks after surgery, I was able to start radiation in record time.

At the time of surgery, I did not have a stick of hair on my entire body and my plastic surgeons (for neat closure, not reconstruction) insisted that I take a shower daily, even with my two drains! I even argued, saying I'd rather not, but they said it's good to wash germs off the area of the incisions. I did not do it as often as they would have liked, but followed their instructions otherwise.

One unrelated thing: when you meet with the anesthesiologist, make sure to request a nerve block (there's one you go home with and one that's more like incisions during surgery and both last for 3-5 days). I had the latter type of nerve block and I took very little pain medicine because of it and probably was the reason I felt comfortable moving as I did.