Hair Hair Hair - Another question
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Mary you have beautiful hair! I luv the soft waves. The pictures are inspirational, can't wait to finish treatment to start growing hair - wigs can be so gosh darn hot and I only wear one if I really feel that I need to. I just completed 3 out of 4, my last treatment is in July (yeah!).
You look great, luv the soft waves.
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Mary, what a wonderful hair story. You look beautiful and your hair is amazing. You look like you have as much hair as me and I am 6 months PFC.
I know is it very encouraging for everyone to see the pictures. There is hair at the end of the journey.
Juannelle
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I am getting frustruated. My first time with chemo my hair came back quickly and I stopped wearing my wig after 3 months but this time around is slow. It has been one month since I finished and the thing is I really just wish my eyebrows and eyelashes would come back... wearing a wig isn't that bad, I just want eyebrows and eyelashes! I am starting to see a few white sprouts coming out of my head so I guess that is progress. I have been taking pictures so I will post them next week as they are saved on my computer at work.
Jennifer
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Love the photos Mary. You are about 3 weeks ahead of me so I really appreciate you posting these so I can compare.
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Jenn: I would agree with you on the eyebrows and eyelashes. It's so much harder to fake those. Mine fell out after chemo, which I wasn't expecting. But the good thing was, they grew back almost immediately again. I hope yours do too.
For those of you that are still undergoing chemo, please take a photo of your hairless head for your own use. It is very encouraging to be able to see progress week by week. I wish I had taken a picture of myself in my bald state and also in the first few weeks after chemo as the stubble started to emerge.
I'm still not sure whether to color my hair. If I used some kind of non-permanent color on top of the gray, would it produce a two-tone effect? If I do color I'd prefer to use some kind of ash blonde color. I don't want to go dark again as it's too hard to maintain.
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My goodness Mary. I didn't even have fuzz 4 months PFC! I'm 15 months post now and don't have as much hair as you did a month after. Sigh.
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Firni: don't be discouraged. I did AC followed by CMF. I finished AC on Dec 8. Onc said that my hair might start to grow while on CMF as many patients don't even lose their hair while on that. I can't say there was a lot of growth in those two months but I likely got a "head start." Also not sure how TC compares to AC in supressing hair growth. My impression in reading these threads is that it takes longer for those on Taxol/Taxotere to see a full head of hair. On the plus side, the probably means that the chemo had done a really good job.
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Mary - you look great!
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Mary - gee your hair looks terrific!
Sherri
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Mary - WOW - your hair looks fantastic. I'm 15 weeks PFC and have about as much as your second photo. The TCH regime is much harder on the hair so I'll have to be patient - it is filling in quite quickly just not growing any longer.
Sue
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MaryNY:
photos are spectacular. You look absolutely beautiful! What color was your hair before chemo? I am on Taxol #2 and I'm seeing some hair regrowth...most of it seems to be very white with some dark brown. I had been coloring my hair and from what my hairdresser told me, I was about 30% gray....this new hair seems to be about 75% gray. I promised my husband, I would not dye it any longer. He loves salt and pepper hair. Not sure I can follow through on my promise but your photos may well be convincing me that I should stick with it!!!
Heather0 -
Thanks for all the comments on my state of hair.
Heather: My hair was straight and brown before chemo. I had been coloring my hair for years, but usually paid a lot of attention to the top and the area around the temples and not much to the back. Even with a mirror I never noticed any white roots there. So I was kind of surprised that it came back so white. I was also surprised at how curly it is. But my onc nurse said that for many of her patients, the hair comes back curly but does eventually return to its original texture.
The quality of my hair seems much better now than it was pre-chemo. Maybe because I'm not putting color in it. You would likely have to wait a while before putting in color anyway, as most women seem to report unexpected results when they color too soon. So that way you can see if you (and your husband) like the new you. It's certainly a lot simpler to not color.
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I am 7 1/2 months PFC and my hair is still growing curly. Does anyone know when it returns to its original texture ? I thought it would have been back to straight by now ...
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MaryNY; You are 5 months ahead of me in terms of chemo and I was wondering what length is your hair now? Can you go out without your wig? Thx Heather
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hmh23 - If you go to page 174 on this thread, you'll see my photo with how my hair was a 12 weeks after chemo ended. I stopped wearing my wig a few days before this photo was taken. Someone asked me to post an updated photo on another thread so I'm going to get my DH to take a photo tonight and I'll post.
Sherri
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hmh23 - as far as color goes, my hair grew in white/gray/colorless at first, but returned to its natural color a few months later. I am guessing that you will return to your 30% gray.
Marion - as for curl, I am 15 month PFC, and the curl is still strong. Many people have said they lose the curl around a year or so, but I am having no such luck. My curl is difficult to deal with and makes my hair seem much shorter than it actually is.
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hmh23: I haven't worn a wig since early-May, that was three months post-chemo. Even before that I was only wearing it occasionally. I was mostly just wearing a hat when I went out. My hair is about two inches long in the back and somewhat shorter on top. Like Nodapearl, because of the curls, my hair probably looks shorter than it really is.
Nodapearl: when did you hair return to its natural color? Just wonder if I can still hold out hope that more color will come back for me. I'm five months post chemo now. Was your hair straight prior to chemo?
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Hi Jayne
Thanks for explaining what bangs are and yes I couldn't agree more I have no fringe whatsoever because my hair is so curly !! Roll on colouring it !!
Oncology appointment went ok go back in 3 months time and in the meantime have to get on with life as they say !!
Hope you doing well too
Debs
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I threw some color over the "dead mouse pelt" on my head a few days ago, and have to say, it's much more attractive. I probably would have ditched the wigs by now, but more a question of it still being chilly here in Seattle!
So probably in the next week or so. Really nice to have nice eyebrows and lashes again. Lashes originally came in white, but are black once again. I wasn't going to be picky and there is always mascara, but nice to have some color in them.
I want to thank whoever wrote about shaving facial "peach fuzz" because that went about a week ago, and I wouldn't have known what to do with it otherwise.
Interesting point now is figuring out my "go forward" look. So more than a question of ultra short, but also one of my identity as I move forward with the rest of my life. People on the floor of my building thought the new look looks cool and nice to be able to go to the rubbish chute w/o head covering.
And certainly won't want to be wearing a wig when I spend two days on my bicycle doing the Seattle-to-Portland. That is coming up in less than three weeks.
So a whole new exciting chapter coming up. My intent is to end up with a bob, but think that will depend on what suits me. So a whole new world of possibilities after rocking ultra long my whole adult life.
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Hey Claire - what kind of colour did you use?
I am 8 1/2 weeks PFC - my hair is about 3/4 inch long all over, pretty thick, spiky on top, wavy at the back, but grey-silver. People say it looks nice but they may be just being kind - lol. I actually don't mind it - and went topless on the weekend for a trip to Stratford, where I knew I wouldn't run into anybody I knew. It felt so liberating -- and to feel the sun and wind in your hair - fantastic!! But I am a little reluctant to give up my hats and scarves closer to home, because people (who "don't know") are used to seeing me in my brown-blonde wig or fall - and I don't feel like explaining the drastic change. How do you ladies deal with this?
Somehow I feel if I could throw some ash-blonde on my hair, I'd look a bit like Annie Lennox - which wouldn't be so bad. At least it might look like a deliberate style change.
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I used the same color as prior to chemo. Feria Natural Black, which I think may be too dark with my austere looking 'do. But at least I know that it doesn't wash out to blue or pink. Divided up the bottle because I am cheap and don't have a lot to color.
I would go for the ash-blonde highlights if I were in your shoes. I don't believe this "grey looks just wonderful" stuff.
As for the change in hairstyles, I tell the truth. Have been doing this with my black wig w/red streaks (even when I got compliments). I bit the bullet back in October when I went to a professional conference between surgery and chemo and realized that going from 2' to 2" usually means chemo of some sort. So might as well get ahead of the rumor mill. I am very glad I did as have a good story, and don't want to hide. Life is too short. (However, if I had just needed surgery radiation, I wouldn't have told.)
As I am already doing cycling events, I have found everyone is fine with me professionally.
Good luck. Can't tell you how much better one color looks than "mouse pelt".
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Luah, I know what you mean about the problem with going around town without the wig. With the wig, if you didn't want to tell someone what was going on you didn't have to. I have only gone 2 weeks without the wig. I have had some different experiences. If I bump into someone who is not a close friend but someone I have known a long time, they either ask about my health or I mention it. If it is just someone I am only aquanted with and haven't seen in years, I just smile, say a quick hello and walk away....just keep them guessing! By doing this I feel like I have some power over my life. With all these treatments this year I didn't feel any power over anything!!
My hair is about half an inch long and I colored it a couple of weeks ago. I used a root touch up kit because I figured I only have roots. I can see how much has grown in the 2 weeks by how long the grey roots are!
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jeanl151: Thanks for your response - makes perfect sense. I notice we have pretty similar pathologies.
I think I'll feel more confident when I have some colour in my hair - the shortness combined with the gray makes for a pretty dramatic change to people who haven't seen me in a while.
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MaryNY - I am not sure exactly when my hair color went back to normal, because I started coloring it at 12 weeks PFC. Several months ago, I noticed my roots were dark. I am very happy to have my color back. My hair was thck and wavy prior to chemo, but not nearly this curly. Now if my lashes would stop falling out..........
Does anyone know when lashes stop falling out? I am 14 months PFC and every 3 months or so they fall out. Not all of them, thank goodness, but many of them.
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This is 7 months PFC, very slow growing out but I have noticed the last month it's been growing faster! I started coloring my hair again as soon as I could see the yuck color it was coming in, dyed it right out of the box from Walgreens and have dyed it about 3 times now with no problem
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WOW sorry that picture was life sized!
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Buccaneer: you look beautiful and may I say radiant. The word radiant makes me smile as during Easter while I was still undergoing radiation, I was at a gettogether and one older man complimented me on my appearance. He said "I know you havent't been well, but I think you look really radiant." One of the women cautioned him that "radiant" probably wasn't such a good word choice since I was undergoing radiation. The poor man was embarassed.
I really like your glasses too. May I ask where you got them? I lost my glasses three months ago and chose new ones at Costco while wearing the wig. Now that I'm not wearing the dark wig and instead have white hair, the glasses look all wrong -- much too severe.
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Bucaneer - you look fabulous!
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Mary,your hair looks great!! B4 chemo i had very thick and slightly wavy hair with lots of body.I am now 15 mos PFC and my hair came back as straight as a ruler,no body whatsoever,and not very thick,especially in the back.No offense meant to anyone but i have what is referred to as an "old lady bald spot" in the back.One day i put rollers in it,left them in all morning and when i took them out there was no change at all.Still straight and no body.It's also not growing as fast as it used to,even though i need to go for a trim soon,which will only be the 2nd cut since chemo finished,and i used to have to get it cut every 6 weeks.
But as i tell my sisters,something is better than nothing,and since it's so straight i'm gonna tell my hair dresser to cut it like Jamie Lee Curtis!!
It's also very dull,does anyone have a treatment for that??
Kathi
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Buzzed my head this past Tuesday, it wasn't fun, but not as bad as I thought it would be. How long before the final 'stubble' falls out?
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