Hair Hair Hair - Another question
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sandym -my hair initially came in very gray. Now the back is medium brown with little gray. The sides are a darker brown with some gray and the top is white but with dark hair coming in. I have an area on the left top of my head that looks almost black! It is quite a mix of colors. Top hairs are white, but if you look at the scalp it is dark - looks weird - like a shadow under my hair. It is the opposite of getting my hair colored previously - then the roots were gray and the longer hair dark - now roots are dark and longer hair gray!
Deb
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Hi Guys, I'm still here. Been up to our friends lake for the weekend and my mom's been giving me a lot of trouble by falling during the night so I've been busier than I want to be.
Today I went to breakfast without the wig for the first time. May 9th was the last chemo so I'm a good 12 weeks out. The head hair is over an inch now but NOT curly. When will the curl come in?? The tips are very light and the rest is so dark it really surprises me. My eyebrows are pretty much there and the lashes are long like they were. I am totally surprised at the rate of their growth. Arm hair keeps coming in and the legs have to be shaved every other day. Down South is coming as well...finally. All of the hair is definitely fine and soft.Just different than it was. ?That could change over time.
Yes, it's possible to color the hair when it's 3/4 on an inch, but as much as I'd love to color mine back to blond I'm afraid I'm going to look like a new born chicken. BALK, BALK!
Curly..love your locks. How long before the curls appeared? I know this is a hair thread, but did any of you have fingernails part away from the nail bed? I was looking under the nails the other day and I can look way under the nail.
What next eh? See ya, Artsee
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We really are different, otter. If we have to deal with this issue at least it's very interesting. I didn't mention my toe hairs are coming in too and I noticed one lone pit hair. I'm leaving that one until just before I see my PS as shaving will be difficult considering how tight that area is from the tissue expanders. Maybe, I'll have to pluck it - painful! BTW, my exchange surgery is scheduled for 9/19/08 and I can't wait. I noticed some peach fuzz on my arms but can only see it in bright sunlight. I'm still surprised by how smooth my face is except for the chin hairs.
Deb, funny you should mention the scalp. Just today, I noticed a strip of darker scalp near the base of my head in the back. I haven't bothered to look at the back of my head much until today when I realized there is a little growth. Most of my scalp looks so white compared to the slight tan I have on my face.
Artsee, I'd love to cover the gray but with hair this short, won't I end up coloring my scalp too? I love my hairdresser and color was one of my monthly treats when I had hair but I don't want to pay to color what is basically still stubble. I've considered asking her what to do but as she buzzed me for free I don't want her to feel obligated to color too. She still calls to check on me. I can't wait to really need her services. Oh, and as far as the nails are concerned, no separation but mine did continue to grow a little through tx's. I have white lines across all of them, probably four, one for each tx but they're close together so it's hard to say for sure. The lines start about halfway down. One more reminder.
Thank you all for sharing. We never have to feel alone in this.
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After reading these posts I grabbed a mirror and tried to see if my hair is darker at the roots. It seems to be -- although there are definitely more gray hairs than there were pre-chemo. I finished chemo on May 8th and it's only 1/2 inch long or so (I think - I don't have anyone here to measure it for me!). I think it's coming in very curly -- it's positively fuzzy in spots. Here are a couple of photos I took of myself today.
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Artsee,
My curls appeared when the hair started getting some length about 4-5 months. The only nail that did anything funky was my little toenail on my right foot. It went black, thought it was gonna fall off but it didnt and then went back to normal. I never lost any fingernails either...
All the best to those ladies going through taxol, for me the worst was the bone pain which started about day 3 after infusion and lasted for a few days. Tynenol #3 with codeine didnt touch the pain, my onocologist prescribed celebrex for the first round of every treatment and it worked great!
Michele
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My last tx was Dec. 21st and I have about maybe 2 1/1 or 3 inches of hair if I am lucky. I stopped wearing my wig sometime in July as it was getting way to hot. My hair color did not come back in as Blonde it came in Platinum so I had it dyed. Could not stand walking around looking like that. I was using Nioxin as well, but the hair dresser told me she really didn't think it helped but it is very drying on your scalp and since I have stopped using it I don't have anymore dandruff. My hair I was hoping would come in straight, but no it is curly, I have always had curly hair and have enjoyed wearing my different wigs because of the straight hair. I did lose my eyelashes and eyebrows almost at the end of my tx. I had 4 DD AC and Taxol. They have come back in but my eyelashes keep thinning on me and it is driving me crazy. I am using Revitalash as well. I noticed the other day my bottom eyelashes look much shorter so I am not sure exactly what is going on but it is driving me crazy.
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I had my first TC treatment on Apr 3 and had the last one on June 5. My hair was gone about 2 weeks after the first Tx and is slowly coming back now. I'd say I have about 1/4 to 1/2 inch of very fine dark hair over most of my scalp, with it being a little more sparse toward the front of my head. My lashes thinned during treatments, but they really started to jump ship toward the end of June/beginning of July. Same with the brows. I painstakenly try to thicken the few lashes I have left with mascara. It's kind of depressing when I'm doing it, but it does help perk up the eyes a little. Using a brow pencil to fill in the brow bare spots; that works well. I still don't have any underarm hair back yet (no complaints there), but the leg hair has returned and I am back to shaving there now. I'm also trying Nioxin on the scalp; I don't know if it's helping or not. And last week I started taking Biotin (5000mcg daily) which I read about on another thread. It's supposed to help with hair regrowth and to make your hair thicker. We'll see whether or not it turns out to be a waste of $25 at the GNC vitamin store.
jdg1, I also read about Revitalash on another thread and checked into it. http://www.revitalash.com is selling it for $150. Definitely out of my price range. Did you order it from that website or did you get it somewhere else? Do you think it was worth the money?
Sue K.
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Sue,
I also have been taking Biotin as well. I don't know if the Revitalash, Biotin or Nioxin work to be honest. Maybe what I should have done was tried the Revitalash on one side to see if it did make a difference or not. I am also wondering now if it could be that my lashes are thinning because of the Tamoxifen. My Boss's wife purchased the Revitalash for me and gave it to me in February when they started growing back in. They say not to use it until the growth has started. Losing the lashes was not that bad because you can use eyeliner and really it is not a big difference but the eyebrows now that was hard. Having to draw them in every day and hope they looked okay.
June
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How about your finger nails my nails are so long but my middle finger is starting to fall off and it has a odor under it and its not from not washing I have never seen this and the hair stubbles are still there filling in first like grass I shaved my head 10 weeks ago tomrrow but who is counting I miss the hair so much one more chemo to go and I hope I will wake up with hair after that I know I am dreaming. It sounds like its going to come in wierd at first too so it will take some shappng and cuts maybe have some by New Years ...
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Ladies, I am definitely having hair loss again due to the post-surgery chemo. Woke up this morning with that brushed-the-wrong-way tingling, and several small tufts pulled out very easily. It's a little over 1/2" long, so I'm not going to shave it like I did in April. I'll just let it do what it has to do. It may hang around a little longer, as I'm not brushing it at all, yet. Or it may just thin a lot and not go completely bald.
My last chemo is this Friday 8/22, so whatever happens, I'll be back on track with lasting hair in a few weeks.
All I can say is I'm glad I didn't get too attached to it...or that Lauren didn't have to do this again with her hairloss nightmares!
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Mine is at 11 weeks (last chemo - taxotere- on June 24) and it looks like Lauren's, but a tiny bit shorter. I'm not brave enough to post a photo! But it's also very, very soft and all black. I look better with this Sinead look than shiny bald, but I still refuse to be seen in public without my wig. It's just my thing; I don't want to be the Bald Professor.
And the hair on my legs is growing with a vengeance! Although my underarms are still hairless (and that's OK with me) and my pubic area looks like a 13 year old's (or so says my SO).
Eyebrows are very, very thin so I've been having to draw them in with a pencil. Same with the eyelashes. However, I did lose my moustache - and I don't miss it! LOL
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My hair looks like it'll be growing back in patches at least I can see a little of it. I have 2 more taxol tx left and then it rads and the remainder of herceptin (so I'm wondering about the growth factor). I am getting hair on my legs and arms again. I'm not even checking for lashes and brows (i just pencil in my brows). Hair "down there" is trying to come back but I have always kept that hairless so I'm back to that. I'm getting a little underarm hair, hate that, I'll have to shave soon. So there's my hair update.
How is everybody?
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My dh keeps looking at me and saying (in apparent amazement), "Your hair is growing! It's really getting longer!"
He's so sweet. What he is calling "hair" is still just soft fuzzy stuff, maybe 1/4 inch long. It is growing, though, and it seems to be some color other than gray-white. My dh says it looks brown, which would be fine.
I did notice today that my long-gone eyelashes are starting to grow back; and I have some stubble where there were bare patches in my eyebrows a week ago. I do realize that this is temporary, and that eyelashes and eyebrows can fall out multiple times. Still, it's progress.
I had my first "encounter" today at the grocery store. Even though I've been bald since early May and have only been wearing ball caps and scarves (no wig), no one has ever approached me to say anything about my baldness or my "cancer look"--until today.
I was buying groceries at a popular store when a man came up to me. Hesitating, he asked if I would mind if he asked me something. I figured he just wanted to know where the pancake syrup was, or what kind of flour his wife meant for him to buy. But, no....
He said, "Have you been treated for some type of cancer?" I said yes, I'd had chemotherapy for cancer ... and he broke out in a big grin and said, "So have I!" He pulled off his cap to show me that he had good hair growth on the sides but patchy hair in the middle of his head. A woman--his wife, obviously--had been standing just around the corner at the end of the aisle, and she stepped out where I could see her. She looked really familiar, but I couldn't recall her name. (It's not chemo-brain. I've never been good at remembering names.)
We talked for a minute or two, and then I told the woman I thought I recognized her. She said I looked familiar, too. It turned out, she had been a student in a course I taught about 10 years ago. Once we made that connection, the conversation really took off.
Her husband described his cancer treatment and how he was doing, including the fact that his hair--which had been gray--was growing back brown. I talked a bit about my situation.
At one point, we had to step out of the way so another customer could get by us in the aisle. That man walked past us, turned around, and came back. He said, "I hope you don't mind if I join in. My wife was diagnosed with breast cancer and is undergoing treatment." He told us about his wife's condition and how optimistic they were; and then he continued with his shopping.
I didn't know how I would feel about being approached by someone who wanted to talk about cancer. Turns out, it wasn't uncomfortable or awkward at all. Maybe one reason for that was the fact that I knew the woman whose husband started the conversation. Maybe it was because he was so upbeat, as was the other man who stopped to tell us about his wife.
I know we grumble about being told to maintain a "positive attitude." It sure makes me feel better when I run into someone who really is doing well, 3 or 5 or 8 years out.
otter
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Otter, So very glad you had a good encounter! It made me smile. Plus, one of my favorite things is running into students down the road. Def a perk of the occupation. I'm also happy to hear you're seeing some developments on the hair front. I'm down to practically nothing on the eyebrow and eyelash front. Though I'm getting more comfortable with drawing on the eyebrows and don't think they look too weird. (Then again, I don't look too closely!)
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Congrats!
It took mine about 6 weeks after finishing chemo. I'm soo glad it's back!
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Otter...I'm convinced that people are chomping at the bit to talk to others with similar experiences. Just to compare and to encourage. Like you said, it's uplifting to hear survivor stories 5-10 years out, and that in turn gives us HOPE.
I've been out of town till this afternoon and I will answer your P.M.
Artsee
P.S. More than 13 weeks out and 1 inch is not long enough for me damn it!!!!!!!!
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O.K. so I'm absolutely a virgin at all this. Only one treatment and my very thick, very course hair was coming out in clumps. Got my wig today and had them shave my head. All I can say is I can understand why men get that whole shaved thing. THAT feels great. The wig feels like shit! It's light and all, but I have the overwhelming sensation that it's slipping off my head. Anyway, I'm finally realizing why some women just go for the ball cap look. I have this sinking feeling it's going to grow back grey. So I'll have to wear the wig until my hair is long enough to color. At some point tonight I just looked at my dog and finally said " you know what, know matter what spin you try to use, this whole situation really sucks ". Fortunately, he's a very understanding pooch and just jumped in my lap and kissed me. God love animals.
Kathy
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Kathy, after being bald since early May (what is that, almost 4 months?), I have no regrets that I did not bother to buy a wig. I am going bald-bald all the time at home, and it feels, well, ... liberating. It is so cool in this hot summer weather! 'Course, if I looked as great as Rock does in a wig, I might have handled this differently...
I had planned to wear lots of cotton scarves, but I've ended up with a nice collection of ball caps I wear almost all the time when I'm in town or traveling.
Yes, this sucks--but I'm feeling stronger about the hair-loss thing lately. Maybe that comes with being finished with chemo. I kind of like the ball-cap look, especially when I wear a pair of my new earrings and I manage to paint on some decent eyebrows. It looks like I have cancer--but I don't care anymore if people see that in me. I am alive, and I am healthy (as far as I know). People tell me I look good, and I just grin and say "Thanks!". I've survived BC (OK, so at least I know I'm NED), and I feel good about that.
otter
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Otter, I just had a thought. One of the side effects of Arimidex is thinning hair. Maybe, in your case, it's inhibiting the regrowth. I'll get to test my theory soon. I will compare my chemobreak regrowth with what I get after my chemo officially ends...and I will be on Arimidex by then. So, if there is slower growth this Fall than this Summer, we'll have a pretty good idea what the cause is.
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Last night, two friends came over. I asked them to look at my head. They did, and their report included the words "colorless" and "peach fuzz."
I don't know how I feel about this. I fear that in another two months, I will resemble the brush I use to scrub my kitchen floor.
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That's better than the drowned mouse my lump of fallen out hair looked like this morning in the shower. Now I know what they mean when they say mousy-brown. 3/4" long and it's got a mind of it's own...wants to go every which way. It's getting so thin again that I look like a radiation victim...but I haven't started that yet (9/2 start date).
At least my summer wig (not the one in the avatar) is getting complements. When I first put it on I felt like I should be organizing MahJong at the local senior citizen's center. But a little de-puffying and now I look better. And feel a lot cooler.
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Nancy, you only had a drowned mouse? I had several drowned cats, but that's probably because I was going from a whole head of hair at the time (like you did, originally).
Oh, and please don't be offended if I don't like your hypothesis about the slow re-growth of my hair. I've been suspecting it's the Arimidex, too. In fact, I asked my onco about that when I met with her this past Monday. She said yes, there is evidence that the AI's can cause hair thinning--she said it's usually noticed by women who have normal hair and it starts to come out on Arimidex. She added, "...but we can't quantify that." That's her way of saying the evidence is all anecdotal; there haven't been any good studies to see how common or severe the AI-associated hairloss thing really is.
For me, it's a moot issue. There is no way I could justify going off Arimidex just because of my hair. Heck, I would probably continue wearing scarves and ball caps for another 5 years, if it meant a serious reduction in my risk of recurrence. Now, if at some point someone tells me I will need to be on an AI for 5 more years (or longer), we might have to renegotiate.
otter
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O.K. guys....I did it. I couldn't hold back any longer and colored my hair back to blond. Now instead of looking like an old lady with 1 inch growth on her head I look like a new born fluffy headed chicky. I kind of like the NEW BORN expression as apposed to OLD LADY. At least now I can watch and keep track of the growth according to the outgrowth.
Keep rubbing them heads....I've been told it helps the growth.
Artsee
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Artsee,
How many weeks out were you? I want to know when I can safely color it without killing my scalp!
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I'm going to Hedwig and the Angry Inch tonight. Nothing like a story about a botched sex change operation and a room full of transgendered folks and their friends and supporters to make a bald girl with no eyebrows feel like everything is going to be okay. (The movie/DVD is brilliant, too. Beautiful and sensitive.) If you need a pickmeup, check out the song "Wig in a Box."
"I put on my makeup, turn on the 8-track/I'm pulling the wig down off the shelf/Suddenly I'm Miss Farrah Faucett from T.V./until I head home and turn back into myself."
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Rock, I LOVE that you are the type of person to get out and do things in the city. When I lived in Manhattan, I only had couple good friends in the city, and they ended up moving away soon after I moved in. Then I got married and my H was on a totally different schedule than me, so we rarely had time for social events together. I worked freelance jobs on top of the regular 9-5, and my H worked nights at his studio. Then the kids came along (we barely had time to make them, LOL) and well, they are great but they added another layer of complication to any social plans.
This week, I went to the NYU Cancer Center on 34th Street to set up my radiation treatments. And I realized that the cancer center is in the spot where the Murray Hill movie theater used to be. It was close to our apartment, and I used to go to the movies there all the time. It was one of the few things I could do alone and not feel uncomfortable. Things change in 13 years, but then you go around the corner and there's a little shop that's been there forever!
Not to ramble on too much, but last weekend I went to a free concert at my local library by a cover band of The Band called The The Band Band. I met up with a friend and we remarked how many gray-haired people were there, and said some disparaging things about old people coming to rock concerts. Then I pointed out that OUR hair would be gray if we didn't 1) color it or 2) wear an auburn wig, and that doing the math, if the people we were looking at were 60-70, then they were younger than we are now when The Band first formed with Bob Dylan. Shut us up.
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Deen....May 9th was the last chemo and I have 1 inch growth for sure. It certainly didn't hurt my scalp and it didn't when I had a lot more hair either. It's the principal, and I just feel better.I don't want to be one of those OLD people that Nancy D was talking about. Yes Nancy...shut you up is right...at least them old people had hair.HA! I should just be happy I'm getting hair, but then black and white just aren't my colors. Speaking of rock concerts I'm chomping at the bit to buy concert tickets for the Eagles (there getting old too) that are going to be in Milwaukee in September but I can;'t see spending over $ 200.00 in the birds nest................
Artsee
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Ladies,
I'm a veteran here, having my last (taxotere) chemo four years ago on this day. Now you know why I'm on the BC.org boards today...
I ditched the scarves and wig by Halloween, so about two months post-chemo. It was fuzzy and short, but it was hair!
Now my hair is finally back to The Way It Was. I had such curly, curly, thick hair after chemo, and my stylist just commented last week that it's changed significantly since I first began seeing her a year ago. I think the hair follicles just get so tweaked with chemo that they produce courser, heavily textured strands for a good long while before returning to normal. I embraced and loved my curls, but I'm glad to be back to the Old Me.
Sadly, however, whether from chemo or perhaps the lack of hormones now (I'm 36, on tamoxifen and post-menopause), I have no eyebrows. They never returned. I'm a very fair redhead with blonde brows and lashes, but really, now there's no hair to speak of up there. My lashes grew back just fine.
I finally bit the bullet and had my brows tattooed on and I'm thrilled with the results. No one can tell it's not me and I'm not rubbing off half a brow during my day. Such a time-saver.
Worrying about hair is the first sign of life returning to (the new) normal.
All the best.
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bumping for poohbear
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Dean,
How many weeks are you out from your last treatment? I've been wodering the same thing, how much longer before I can color my hair again??? I'm 9 wks out. I've got more salt then pepper in my hair and I can't stand it. I'm only 43 and I'm not ready to be grey yet
Speaking of rock concerts, I went to Bruce Springsteen last night, GREAT concert! I wore my wig and the people in our row said I looked like Katie Holmes, they obviously didn't know it was a wig
I just smiled. I'll be so glad when I can take that thing off!0
