Chemo Hair Loss ?

Euwig · July 2008

Dear Friends,

my image in the mirror, as long as I live will be my reassurance that I'm OK, I'm likeable and acceptable, therefore life is worth living. Especially to a woman, the face and hair, are two of the very few core importance beauty elements that attract most attention and care on an everyday basis.

Signs of tiredness, intense lifestyle and malnutrition, reflect in our face, and most of the times when we need to change our mood into a more joyful one, our hairstylist's hands will do the magic.

Every health condition, especially a disease, has two aspects : the physical and the psychological one. Cancer is no exception. Talking about the decisive role of positive thinking, on disease's cure is not our topic here, but spotting the source of our anxiety and uneasiness while certain unpleasant manifestations occur, is essential towards identifying the REAL PROBLEM and effectively coping with it.

Chemotherapy is a treatment option chosen by your oncologist in order to control the spread of cancer cells in your blood stream, therefore eliminate metastases possibilities, or eradicate carcinaemia in cases of recently operated and removed tumors, or aleviate from symptoms that accompany rapidly expanding tumors that are pressing on organs causing dysfunction among other clinical symptoms.

Because Chemotherapy Drugs owe their drastic effectiveness to the fact that they interfere with the cancer cell's proliferation cycle, in most cases, it is almost impossible to differentiate cancer cells as their target from rapidly dividing healthy cells like those of the hair follicles, the skin, the mouth mucosa , the nails, the endothelium of the gastrointestinal tract, blood, bone marrow, kidneys and liver.

The Chemotherapy Drugs through the blood stream reach every single point of the body and express their activity by "killing". We will not get into micromolecular analysis details here, but you should know that the hair-loss you're experiencing due to Chemotherapy, may be an unpleasant effect, but it should be considered "welcomed" in terms of your overall disease's treatment and its desired results.

Chemotherapy induced Hair-Loss is as temporary as its cause. Once your Chemotherapy Sessions are over, the follicles cells will start dividing again giving birth to new hair which will eventually grow to what is called "chemotherapy hair" in a time-period of six months since your sessions are over.

This new hair is often grey and curly, but pretty soon the quality of the hair returns back to normal and in some cases, depending on your attitude towards caring for yourself, your nutritional habits, and your psychological status, you can help yourself look again MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN EVER !

What we can't stress enough here, is that each situation derives its principal meaning to us from the way we interpret it and the emotions we choose to link to it. So, if I link my Chemotherapy Hair-Loss to the emotions that overwhelm me when I see my bald image in the mirror, I can't help myself from getting sunk into a dark blurry sea of absolute despair and helpnessness. But if I link my Chemotherapy Hair-Loss to the emotions of triumph and joy over defeating the disease and securing my health and my Life so I can enjoy everything I want when back to normal soon, then I can practically ignore this temporary situation, shield myself emotionaly against it and use my sense of creativity, aesthetics and humor to overcome it .

In the first option, the disease has totally got me, I'm lost, my psychic energy is being wasted in as many directions as my fears and insecurities. In the second option, I'm the absolute ruler of things, and I deliberately focus my psychic energy towards winning and reaching the desirable results.

We all have experienced times we had to drive our car in a heavy merciless rain, with limited visibility and terrible traffic conditions. But the thought of getting home soon, didn't let us quit driving and collapsing half way home.

You'll get home sooner than you think, and everything will be absolutely fine.

Kind Regards

Sophia Stavropoulou

****************************

EuWig(dot)com

Beautiful Hair Anyway !

Anonymous · July 2008

Are you selling something?

dhettish · July 2008

My Hair loss should be "welcomed"?

Lucky · July 2008

I certainly didnt welcome my hair loss....was always very proud of my big blonde hair....so when I lost all of it 2 weeks after starting chemo last August it was traumatic. But I got a really cute wig and most folks thought I just got a new hair cut. I finshed my chemo last Feb. When my hair started to grow back I thought I looked like Ben Franklin....started growing on the sides but not on top....so I shaved my head again the end of March to even it out. I had bilateral mast May 22 and returned to work June 18th...and went back outout my big blonde wig...instead went back with short short gray hair. But most folks are very complimentary. I have been so stressed by my loss of hair and the slowness it ook to grow back. But now....I have to say I "almost" like my new look. Your hair WILL grow back!!

Keep your chin up...and keep reading posts on this site....all of us are going through simlilar issues.

Jacki in Ohio

Anonymous · July 2008

Hi Lucky,

This lady was selling her wig line, and had a really long posting with florid descriptors as to why and how we can be beautiful with one of her wigs. (Would you say that was pretty accurate, Debbie?).

I've been out of chemo for two years, and have my hair back (pony-tail length, even!), but I was really offended by this lady's posting.

snowyday · July 2008

I missed the posting but would like everyone to a least check out there cancer clinic's they usually have a lot of wigs you can use while having treatment. They are all sterilized and then styled and they cost absolutely nothing. The choices and styles are amazing even here in Canada. I went back three times before I found one that I was comfortable with. But even then I found I went bald or just wore a scarf most of the time. I think the only time I wore one was when I got really fed up with the ' oh poor girl look". Oh and if you do wear a wig what often helps with the itching is rubbing Gold Bond on your scalp. I even carried it with in case it started itching again. My hair seemed at first to grow back slowly, then bang, I had a hairstyle. Now all I hear from people is how much better I look with short hair. It got to the point where I asked one friend if I looked like crap with long hair. She said no, but I just look younger with short hair.

Silly thing is my eyebrows still don't look the same and probably never will and that bothered me more than the whole hair loss thing.

lisamed123 · July 2008

Snowy, I know what you mean about getting the compliments about the wig. I had long hair and picked out a chin-length bob wig. I did cut my hair the day after my first chemo to the length of the wig so I would have a smooth transaction. The wig is "highlighted" a little lighter than I would have ever dared to go with my own hair. My first day wearing it to work, someone told me I look twenty years younger. I am 42 and looked about 35 before I lost my hair. I also went to the mall the first weekend wearing it and had complete strangers telling me how much they like my "hair". They were stunned when I told them my "secret". I will say, unfortunately, I think you get what you pay for.

I will admit I was very nervous the days leading up to getting the wig fitted and my head shaved. But, I was losing my hair for about three days before that, and it was awful. I have tons of hair and the falling out was awful. I felt absolutely hideous, because I was afraid to wash and use the blow dryer. The losing of hair is not nearly as bad as I had worked it up to be in my mind beforehand.

I have not lost all of my eyebrows, but they have thinned dramatically. I am one of those people who would have to have their eyebrows groomed every 3 or 4 weeks, so I am with you with the eyebrows being worse than the hair loss.

lisamed123 · July 2008

Snowy, I know what you mean about getting the compliments about the wig. I had long hair and picked out a chin-length bob wig. I did cut my hair the day after my first chemo to the length of the wig so I would have a smooth transaction. The wig is "highlighted" a little lighter than I would have ever dared to go with my own hair. My first day wearing it to work, someone told me I look twenty years younger. I am 42 and looked about 35 before I lost my hair. I also went to the mall the first weekend wearing it and had complete strangers telling me how much they like my "hair". They were stunned when I told them my "secret". I will say, unfortunately, I think you get what you pay for.

I will admit I was very nervous the days leading up to getting the wig fitted and my head shaved. But, I was losing my hair for about three days before that, and it was awful. I have tons of hair and the falling out was awful. I felt absolutely hideous, because I was afraid to wash and use the blow dryer. The losing of hair is not nearly as bad as I had worked it up to be in my mind beforehand.

I have not lost all of my eyebrows, but they have thinned dramatically. I am one of those people who would have to have their eyebrows groomed every 3 or 4 weeks, so I am with you with the eyebrows being worse than the hair loss.

Anonymous · July 2008

I read this posting too and thought what the heck. This looks like an ad! Then I saw the website at the bottom. Glad it was removed.

Chemo Hair Loss ?

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