Hair Hair Hair - Another question
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My hair was peach fuzz at the beginning. It was very soft and fine. Now it's back to my original thickness and wave. Other than being shorter, it looks the same as before - thick and curly. I have to have it thinned each time I have it trimmed.
Welcome Anne!
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is my hair growing back??? is it stupid that i can't tell? I feel stubble on my legs. there are straggles on my hair that seem longer and a lil bit more of them on the sides and top. i just assumed i'd feel stubble. between the straggles is smooth skin. and i'm not exactly sure that the straggles ever fell out in first place. i think they did bec i have pictures during chemo. today makes 6 weeks pfc and along with my treatment being held today, this makes me feel very discouraged and annoyed
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My hair growing back was one of my persistent questions to the doctor. It does grow back not as fast as anyone would like. Mine started partially growing back during Taxol, it was super fine and white. At the four week mark I was still wondering if I was going to get any of my dark hair back and when it was going to fill in. Finally, after week five it started filling in and coming in black. It was slow going and I still had lots of bald spots. I am 12 weeks PFC and it has filled in all over the place head, legs, arms, face, etc. I am hoping that in another 4 weeks about the time I finish Rads that I'll feel comfortable without the wig at least for casual outings. I normally have short hair but it is too short now and doesn't balance my face out. I have my fingers crossed because pretty soon I it will be too hot for the wig. Good Luck all. MJ
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when I look at pix a month ago my skull was very shiny. The hair coming in wasn't stubble like a guy's beard as I expected. More a velvet feel so the shiny part is gone and now it's more like the feeling of microfiber
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Hmm. I guess that's why I can't tell bed of the shiny parts. Wasn't sure if these straggles were there n growing or had left out and came back. Just everything sucks right now.
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MaryJC you seem so worried about your hair, so I'll relate my experience since I was the exact same way
. Unfortunately I am one of the ones affected by the failure of my hair to return to the way it was pre-chemo. I had very thick and full hair before all this. I started to realize there was a problem about 10 weeks PFC, and that's when I started reading everything I could find, including this entire thread lol. The longest anyone posted it taking their hair to start growing was 3 months, so I figured maybe I was a slow grower.
I didn't see any noticeable growth anywhere on my body for a full 3.5 months. No leg stubble, no arm hair, no underarm stubble, no pubic hair, and very few and far between sprouts on my head. The first to return was leg hair, which I promptly waxed off, only for it not to return for another three months.
Once my head hair did start to grow it was patchy, sparse especially on top, and very fine. No stubble feeling. I have ended up with probably 2/3 of my original hair returning, and it is growing very slowly. One year PFC and I have 1.5 inches is all. If it ever gets any length to it it'll be workable, but at this point it's growing so slowly that I'm not comfortable going out in public without some kind of head cover.
I'm going to talk to an endocrinologist next month just to be sure that this is a result of the taxotere, but I suspect it is.
I think it's a good sign that you're already getting some stubble, and a little growth on your head.
Remember, there's only about a 6-10% chance that these drugs will cause permanent hair loss, so there's a 90-94% chance that it won't. And, even though it's hard to hear (even after I've come to terms with it, it's still hard to hear lol), I've come to realize it really is just hair. I'm lucky to have had such a good response to treatment, given my diagnosis.
Take care, and keep your chin up
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SDM000, is there any correlation between body hair and permanent loss of head hair? I lost probably about 90% of my head hair and most hair everywhere else, but my leg hair has continued to grow through the entire process so I am wondering if that is possibly a good sign that my hair will regrow. I have one round of chemo left to do since I am doing six rounds total
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Italychick, just anecdotally as I'm no expert, a lot of the women who report permanent hair loss also report that their body hair never returned to normal either. In my case I lost all hair everywhere except for a bit of my eyebrows and lashes. My lashes have returned to almost normal but not as long, and my eyebrows have not returned to normal at all.
I'd say it might be a good sign that you've not lost everything, everywhere. As I said above, it's really a small percentage of patients who have this happen, but of course those are the stories you hear, since the vast majority of those who return to normal don't really have a reason to post about it.
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For those of you who had Taxotere and are at least 6-12 months out and still have no hair or hair that is only growing about 1-2" on your head, no longer, no eyebrows and or no body hair check out this thread:
Taxotere and permanent hair loss????0 -
thanks for reposting the link lago!
ItalyChick and MD, from what I've read those with permanent alopecia seem to have lost ALL body hair. Also that they have some thyroid issues going on. Those who got it addressed had regrowth. This is a screen shot of the blood work from another thread on another site.
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MD, I sooo appreciate your perspective of being grateful to have responded to treatment. Thank you for sharing💖💜!
I also posted this screen grab too of a woman who's hair started to regrow after 7 years!
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MaryJC, I know you are also into the ketogenic diet. I lost a lot of hair when I went too low on carbs, so maybe watch your diet, hair loss, body temperature to see if the ketogenic diet also affects hair re growth. I lost about 20% of my head hair when I went too low carb trying to lose weight. When I added back in a few carbs, the hair loss subsided and regrew
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well girl with the French fries I had last night, keto ain't the culprit😤 en route to market now. Today is a new day and starting over!!!
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Mmmm, french fries! I do yams or sweet potatoes so I don't go too low carb. Just bake it with butter and cinnamon, so yummy! Or I get an apple pie spice mix.
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Don't forget - if you are on Herceptin the growth will be slow for that entire year. Since the conventional wisdom says you won't know what kind of hair you'll get back until one year PFC, I'm counting that date as past final Herceptin. My hair came in baby fine & very curly, and darker than my original salt & pepper. The curls are gone & it's fairly thick but still fine. I'm not going to make any huge decisions about whether to keep it short or grow it out again until the totally undamaged roots start to grow - one year after completing Herceptin (which is almost two years PFC for me.)
I do take 5000 mcg of Biotin every day and my nails are finally getting stronger so I can only believe the new hair roots will love it too.
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13 1/2 months pfc (but who's counting ...me!)? Stopped coloring when it started coming in and I realized it was going to stay gray. Never thought it would be this gray! Keeping it gray. Would be too hard to color, and the roots would be aweful! Kind of liking it most of the time. Get compliments on it, and I never did before when it was boring brown. It's very white with some darker areas in the back and top.looks pretty in the light, kind of platinum and I was normally medium brown. Cancer let me start with a clean slate. Would have never done this but oh well, thrilled to have hair and be healthyand it's kind of cool looking
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Lovely Lisa! Hoping mine looks 1/2 as good. Mine was grey and coming in white. Time will tell!
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Lisa - my BFF's hair turned that lovely silver/white shade before she was 40. I was always jealous. You look fantastic.
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Lisa: I think you have lovely hair. If my hair came in that color, I would keep it gray too.
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Lisa, - looks terrific!
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Lisa - you look beautiful!
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thanks, thanks, thanks, love coming on here as you girls make me feel GOOD! Even though we've never met we support each other as BFFs! Social media can be great! Have a good weekend
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Lisa: love your silver lox. Guess cab call yourself a silver fox😉
Thanks Bosom! I wanna say I have hair growing on my head. I think I was expecting a GI Jane thing and stubble. Italy Chick said it would be sparce and wirey which it def is. But feel (think and hope) I'm feeling more hair when I rub my head. Just doesn't really look like it.
Meanwhile my herceptin has been held I'm sad to say. So hair may grow faster until I'm God willing back on it.
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MaryJC - sorry to hear they needed to hold the Herceptin. Did they give you an idea how long they'll wait?
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thanks Minus Two. I go to cardiology this Friday, repeat the echo on 24th. She put me back on schedule for early July. Said she suspects it's due to my bp and if so I'd go back on. She left a lot out. Makes me angry. From all I've read high bp makes u more suseptible for lowered EF and they'll put you on beta blockers or ACE inhibitors. Either way I pray it goes back up. It's terrifying to think being taken off
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I'm still shedding. Nonetheless I frequently go uncovered these days. The other day my head was cold and so I put something on. Today I was working outside in the sun and so wore something to prevent skin burn. Most of mine are pre-tied or partially pre-tied, so it's like putting on a hat.
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I was very much into the wigs at the beginning. They were so hot and uncomfortable I just said the heck with it and started going uncovered. Of course then I got the usual compliments on how well my head was shaped - I guess people felt like they had to say something nice. Truth be told it made my ears look like satellite dishes, but at that point I just didn't care. My comfort was more important to me!!
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just went in grocery store au natural with no wig or scarf. Gor a look from a lady and just smiled back. Cashier asked if I was a survivor. Said she was 10 years post chemo and never asked anyone before but wanted to reassure me!
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That's awesome Chloesmom! I can't believe no one told you what a nice shaped head you have. lol
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What the hell do I do with hair like this?? Scary isn't it!!!!!
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