Show me your hair growth

hray1993
hray1993 Member Posts: 342
edited July 2021 in Chemotherapy - Before, During, and After

Hey everyone!! I’m curious to see how everyone’s hair growth is doing. How long is it?

Post a pic of how long it’s been since you finished chemo, show a pic of your hair before cancer, right after treatment, and a pic of it now. Did your hair come back a different color or texture? Curly or straight?

My hair before cancer was fine and thin. And dirty blonde natural color. Now it’s coarse and thicker, curlier than it was before chemo, and a light brown natural color.
I finished chemo July 2,2020 so it’s been a year for me

Before hair, first day of treatment

image
right after chemo

image

My hair now. I’ve colored it since it’s grown back. But it’s thicker now. I’ll also add a picture of how curly it is now

image

image


· Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Comments

  • ScatteredEnergy
    ScatteredEnergy Member Posts: 382
    edited July 2021

    hray1993, your hair looks great.

    Before being diagnosed

    image

    Haircut to get ready for chemo

    image

    1st chemo

    image

    Last chemo

    image

    After chemo

    image

    image

    After chemo when I didn't like the way my hair looked so I had it colored.

    image

    Now, a year after chemo finished.

    image

    image

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • Carlsoda
    Carlsoda Member Posts: 249
    edited July 2021

    thank you so much for sharing! I have my last infusion on August 5th and looking forward to having some hair in the future!!

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • hray1993
    hray1993 Member Posts: 342
    edited July 2021

    Scatteredenergy, your hair is so pretty! I love it! Did the thickness come back any different?

    Carlsoda, so exciting you’re almost done! Keep pushing through. The hardest part is almost over! It’s so fun seeing how your hair comes back. Mine is completely different now I have a love hate relationship with it

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • MountainMia
    MountainMia Member Posts: 1,307
    edited July 2021

    No pix, but my hair was shoulder length, straight and fine, and naturally brown when I was diagnosed in early 2019, at age 58. I was bald with chemo, and it came back slowly and annoyingly curly. I kept it short through 2019, as it was pretty easy for my husband to cut it for me (no covid hair cuts.) Now I am 60 and am growing it out. The curl is gone but it's got a bit more bend and heft to it than it did before cancer. Right now it's almost all grown out to chin-length bob. It's still naturally brown, hardly any grey!

    I have almost no hair on either leg, no hair in my left underarm (radiation) and not much in my right. The pale, scarce hair on my arms is paler and scarcer. I have worse tinnitus than pre-chemo, which could be from hair loss (the tiny hairs in inner ears.)

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • hray1993
    hray1993 Member Posts: 342
    edited July 2021

    my underarm hair barely grew back, ive shaved once in like a year. My leg hair came back so that’s annoying but I can deal with it. At what point did your curls go away?

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • Ingerp
    Ingerp Member Posts: 2,624
    edited July 2021

    Just a quick comment from the other side of the tunnel. I'd read in various places on BCO that your normal hair will come back about two years after you finish treatment. That was very much my timing. Hang in there, ladies!!

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • hray1993
    hray1993 Member Posts: 342
    edited July 2021

    oh that would be awesome! I like my hair thicker but I don’t like it being coarse I kind of miss my old hair

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • ajminn3
    ajminn3 Member Posts: 327
    edited July 2021

    image

    Thanksgiving 2019 (1 week before my mammogram/biopsy)

    image

    2 months post last chemo. I have no bald pics..I lived in hats/scarves the entire time but I was completely bald.

    image

    10 months post chemo

    image

    Today! 14 months post chemo. My hair came back exactly the same. Brown (with some stray grays), fine, thick, and stick straight. Most of the time I wear it like this: image

    Baby pony with a headband/lots of Bobby pins. It’s too humid and hot where I live to have my hair on my neck. I haven’t gotten a haircut yet but probably should…☺️

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • SpecialK
    SpecialK Member Posts: 16,486
    edited July 2021

    My hair grew back exactly as it was, totally straight, fine, and relatively thin. I was a blonde child whose hair darkened as I got older, but it is now totally gray and was pre-chemo. My hair was slow to start, but once it did it grew at the previous normal speed.

    image

    In the top left photo is my hair (and cleavage, lol!) a year before breast cancer. Bottom left photo is a recent photo. There is about 9 years between these photos. Top middle is my straight very short gray hair, about to be colored for the first time post-chemo. It had been cut several times and this is about six months post-chemo. Middle photo is 12 months post-chemo, 6 months post-Herceptin, and it has been cut several more times. Bottom middle is about six months later. Top right is exactly two years post chemo, bottom right three years post chemo.

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • hray1993
    hray1993 Member Posts: 342
    edited July 2021

    specialK, it seems like your hair grew pretty fast! 18 months post chemo it was the bottom middle? I hope I get that lucky! I normally always kept a short bob pre cancer but now that it’s thicker I’m thinking of growing it out longer just to see what it looks like

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • SpecialK
    SpecialK Member Posts: 16,486
    edited July 2021

    hray - my hair does grow fast! I also cut it a lot to get to healthier hair and make it look more intentional, but the styles in those two middle photos prob look longer on me because my head is super small, lol! I couldn't purchase any off the shelf wigs because they would just fall off my teeny head, had to order specialty sized. I mostly wore a hairpiece made from my own hair that I cut off and sent to the maker that had a custom fabric top cap part. I had to wear a hat (ball cap or fedora) on top of it but that was the most comfortable thing I had.

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • LeesaD
    LeesaD Member Posts: 383
    edited July 2021

    I had a shoulder length bob prior to chemo. My hair was very thick. I had TC chemo and it grew back but is much much thinner now probably due to instant menopause from ovary removal and AI’s. I’m four years post chemo now but these photos were over about a two year progression from when it started growing back. I colored my hair as soon as I had fuzz and my colorist used a gentle dye until it became hearty enough for blond color. I also had it cut very regularly throughout the whole re growth. My hair stylist was amazing and knew how to get it back to all one length. image

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • hray1993
    hray1993 Member Posts: 342
    edited July 2021

    leesaD, I had a short bob prior to chemo too. If I can just get back to that then I’ll quit focusing on hair growth and just let it grow at its own pace. I’m almost there!

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • Melbo
    Melbo Member Posts: 346
    edited July 2021

    mine is finally long enough to do something fun! Almost a year since I started chemo!


    image

    This is me at my last chemo. Turns out I didn’t take many non mask, completely bald pics.
    image


    My last pre-chemo selfie. I actually think I like my post chemo hair better.

    image

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • Maryjv
    Maryjv Member Posts: 306
    edited July 2021

    I had long, thick, straight hair before chemo…came back thick and curly! I love it…

    This was when it was starting to fall out!

    image


    image

    This was about two months ago!

    image

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Categories