Chemo and Hair Loss

Hi everyone,

I'll be starting my first round of chemo next week and was told by my gyn/oncolgist to expect to lose all my hair, including eyebrows and lashes. I was just wondering how many of you experienced this complete hair loss with chemo? Also, how long did it take for your brows and lashes to grow back after your treatments stopped? My daughter is getting married June 4 and I'm hoping I'll be presentable for pictures by then with my last chemo treatment at the end of April. I can deal with wearing a wig, but the rest of it freaks me out a bit.

I lost my hair with the first chemo. My eyebrows thinned and I lost many eyelashes. The worst is the eyelash loss. Itcy and irritating.

It depends how fast your hair usually grows as to how fast you get it back. I got my brows back pretty fast, but my eyelashes are still thin several months down the road.

You may have to wear the wig though even though you get hair back. My sister-in-law's came back curly and thick and it wasn't manageable until she had enough to cut a few times. Her son's wedding was in the middel of treatment, and she wore her wig, glitter by her eyes, and drew on eyebrows (I never lost all my eyebrows).

It's different for different people. While you want to look good for the wedding and pictures, remember the chemo will be the deciding factor on your ability to be there. Who cares what you look like? You're alive to see his wedding.

I'm not making light of this -- the loss of my hair is still something I cry about. But you have to put it in perspective, kick up your heels, and just enjoy the wedding.

s Grneyedldy

The hair loss is probably one of the toughest parts of treatment. But i agree with WillToWin, put all of that stuff aside and just remember the important things. Like, you are alive and well to be at the wedding.

To be honest with you, if your last treatment is the end of April, and the wedding is June 4th, you will probably not have enough hair to go without a wig. You'll have a good chance to have a pretty good regrowth of eyebrows and eyelashes. It all depends. Everyone is different.

Have a great time and enjoy that weddding !!!!!!!

Hi Green Eyes,

I got chemo from 12/24/04--6/10/05 and lost every single hair on my body. I agree with you, the head hair loss was not so bad, but I did miss my eyebrows and eyelashes. Oh heck, I missed them all, even the ones that we often shave or wax off, but I really mourned my eye hair.

My eyelashes and eyebrows thinned, but didn't fall out entirely until the last two months. My head hair actually started to grow back before I finished chemo, and egged on by my co-workers, I stopped wearing the wig 6 weeks after I finished. It was extremely short, but it was a hot July, so I dyed it platinum blonde and people raved about it. I get contract work doing presentations to medical staff and the public, so I wore the wig about two months longer just for that--stuck in on in the car right before, whipped it off as I drove out of the parking lot. My eyebrows and eyelashes were fully in by 2 months after, eyebrows a little thinner, eyelashes a little fuller, just what I wanted.

Will-to-Win is so right that it is different for everybody, but if you finish on time end of April, I would think you would have enough eyelash growth to support false eyelashes for the day. My chemo was supposed to end sooner, but due to a mid-course change in scheduling and two treatment delays due to low white blood cell counts, it dragged on for a while. Seemed like I was getting chemo longer than I was in college, but the 7 months since I finished have whizzed by.

If you don't have any eyelashes at all, I would not personally recommend trying to glue them to the naked lid. I tried this and only succeeded in gluing my left eye shut for most of a day.

You are going to have so much fun at that wedding. Chemo will be over, you'll be launching this wonderful young couple--I wish I could be there to toast you. And to eat cake.

May your chemo be kind to you,

Michele

I too lot all my hair on chemo. If I recall right, the eyelashes came back pretty quickly--I was putting on makeup one day, wondered what "that" was and "that" was eyelash stubs coming in. Eyebrows did OK too. I doubt you'll be able to ditch the wig for the wedding because it will take a bit longer to begin to really look like hair again. Three months after mine started coming back, I still was not comfortable with what I had. At 5 months I was. The big thing--you'll be at the wedding! Have fun and enjoy.

Thank you so much WTW, Lori, Michele, and Margaret for your responses, well-wishes, info, and tips - especially yours, Michele, about not glueing false eyelashes directly to the lid. Sounds like you had quite an experience with that. I am definitely so very thankful that my cancer was caught early, and my survival prognosis so high, but it's still early enough in the process that I'm suffering from the 'why me, why this, why now?' and haven't truly embraced the fact yet that the dreaded upcoming treatments will allow me to live another 40-50 or more years, God willing!

Leave it to the bride-to-be to help knock me back to my good senses by telling me "Mom, stop being such a drama queen."

s ladies.

Kristi

s Kristi

I discovered that my mourning for my hair was over as soon as my hair was gone. The free fall began on day 16 after the first chemo with taxol and carboplatin. To stay in control, I then shaved my head. Brows and lashes take a bit longer to leave. However brows and lashes made the fastest comeback for me.
I had my last chemo in mid Oct. By mid December I attended a party with no hat or wig, just a styling crewcut.
Best wishes to you.

oxoxo karenann

Hi again, Green Eyes,

Don't ever apologize for thinking "why me?' For me that thought continued to come and go in waves until...let's see, what time is it now?

And hair--we are all obsessed with hair! I think time dulls our memories about that a little. You know how they say one forgets the pain of childbirth--I think we pretty much forget the pain of everything.

You are going to have a great outcome but feel free to complain anytime. Makes me feel more normal.

This is me, rubbing your sweet bald head to encourage rapid hair regrowth.

Michele

Even when your hair comes back, if you are going to be in wedding pictures, try taking some trial pictures first. When mine first returned, I thought it looked okay, but when I see myself in pictures taken back then, it looks like I have no hair, because it was so fine and light-coloured!

Losing your hair is one of the truly sucky parts of having cancer (although, I did enjoy not having to shave my legs).

Blessings,
Jeannie

Stupid taxol for making my hair fall out... good taxol for kicking some cancer butt though!

My hair fell out after my first taxol treatment. I didn't lose the rest of my body/facial hair though. My hair grew back pretty fast.

Quite honestly, I have had so much fun with my wigs. And it has been liberating too! I can sleep in a little longer since it doesn't take that long to do my hair in the mornings anymore! I jump out of the shower throw on my wig and off I go! I have several different ones... one day it's short, then it gets long... HA!

The only bad thing has been my head gets a little cold at night...so i wear a little cap to bed to conserve the heat.

So I guess even when my hair grows back, I'm keeping a couple wigs around for the bad hair days or when I'm in a hurry!