Hair Hair Hair - Another question

I went topless this weekend!  It was hot and I was so tired of wearing a hat (I never did the wig thing, it drove me crazy when I put it on).  My husband had a party for me to celebrate my health  and my family talked me into going without my hat. So it was like a coming out party for me.  I'm 12 weeks PFC and while my whole head is covered, it is very short and gray.  Today I came to work without my hat and it's cloudy and supposed to rain, so now I'm cold.  Sigh....

My partner keeps telling me to ditch the hat - but it's my security blanket. Although last night we went out for dinner and I had it off for a little while. Apart from the bald bartender, I had the shortest hair in the room, but nobody batted an eye.

Today I'm packing up all my extra sleep caps and head coverings that I order on-line in a pre-chemo panic, and gving them all away.  I'm hanging on to one or two favorites - but I can't get the others out of the house fast enough!

Congratulations to everyone who is going topless! 

I donated my drawer full of unworn scarves and bandanas to my cancer center. They allow patients to take what they need.

Joan who said "10% of women on Taxotere don't get their hair back" That is a gross exaggeration. If it was that high it would be posted all over the place. It's more like 3% although still researching the number. Even on this site there are only a small number. I thought for sure I would be one of them since I had a receding hair line since I was in my mid 40's and using Minoxidil. I figured I rather be bald then be dead. Well guess what. Not only do I have all my hair back but a lot of the hair that receded came back. Still have some thinning on the left but very minor. Don't assume it will happen. It is very rare.

BTW I did get the more rare SE from Taxotere. My nails are still not recovered (15 months out). Nail polish does a great job of hiding that so no biggy.

ksmathews - How did the at-home keratin treatment go?

Justina, I will be 14 weeks pfc this Wednesday. My brows were so thin about 2 weeks pfc and then I started using extra virgin olive oil on my head & brows. My brows are thicker than ever now, and while hair on my head can't possibly grow fast enough to make me happy, I have to admit its coming in good. Im sure it's the olive oil speeding it up. Also taking biotin and biosil. Stopped using nioxin. My lashes are also thick again - probably from the vitamins.

JoanQuilts I always had a ton of hair. I know for a while my stylist was thinning it out because I had so much. I'm not sure if he still does that

Like I said my hair line is significatly improved. I actually part my hair on the "thin" part and brush back. If you look at the 1st picture on the right before chemo and some of the last pictures on the right you can see how my part is now lower and brushed back. My hair was a little more receded in the right photo and my hair is brushed down to cover the thinning area. linky I really need to get an updated photo up. It will be my last since my hair is back to normal and I'm keeping it short.

So now I'm famous in NJ.

Hi ladies:

I've been away from this board for many months but I can say that the ladies here who did chemo with me in 2010 were the best support group ever.  They've all moved on now but I still read the hair, hair, hair, site.  Why you ask?  Because I'm one of those 'grossly exaggerated' survivors of Taxotere who DID'T get her hair back.  It's 3 years in Dec. since my dx and 2 in Sept since treatments were done and I have crypt keeper hair.  If you have any questions about the truth of this happening visit www.aheadofourtime.com.  Here is a direct information from that site:

According to Sanofi-Aventis, manufacturer of the chemotherapy drug Taxotere-used to treat breast, lung, gastric, head and neck and prostate cancer-3% of patients administered the drug could experience long-term alopecia. This figure could rise to as high as 6.3% when given in combination with the drugs Adriamycin (doxorubicin) and Cyclophosphamide, according to a study by the Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers in Colorado.

"Such an emotionally devastating long-term toxicity from this combination must be taken into account when deciding on adjuvant chemotherapy programs in women who likely will be cured of their breast cancer," the study concludes.

Despite this recommendation, patients-are not being informed of this potentially disfiguring side effect.

A Head of Our Time is a world-wide organization of cancer patients who have banded together to share emotional support, compare medical research and educate our health care providers. If you are tired of the stares and the dismissive suggestions to "wear a wig", you will find understanding and, indeed, empowerment among us.

Let's keep our eye on the real issue. This is not about vanity. It's about a patient's right to make informed choices about their treatment, it's about a drug that has raised a red flag at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and it's about a drug company that has a history of obscuring the facts.

In April 2009, the FDA issued a warning letter to Sanofi-Aventis, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, for a reprint carrier citing a study in the Journal of Oncology. The study compared the efficacy of Taxotere and Taxol, the trade name for paclitaxel, in treating locally advanced and metastatic breast cancer.

According to the FDA, the reprint was "false or misleading because it presents unsubstantiated superiority claims and overstates the efficacy of Taxotere."

In its warning, the FDA stated that it is "not aware of substantial evidence or substantial clinical experience to support the claims made in the carrier regarding Taxotere's level of efficacy or superiority to paclitaxel."

Indeed, a study in the New England Journal of Medicine compared the efficacy of the two drugs. It concluded that women who received Taxotere every three weeks had "better disease-free survival," but women who received Taxol each week "lived longer overall." Taxotere/Taxol. Tomato/Tomato. Except for that hair thing no one wants to mention.

This is not the first time that Sanofi-Aventis has gotten a slap on the wrist. In 2007, Aventis paid more than $190 million to the U.S. Government to settle drug pricing fraud. The drug manufacturer agreed to settle False Claims Act allegations concerning its pricing and marketing of Anzemet, an antiemetic drug used primarily in conjunction with oncology and radiation treatment to prevent nausea and vomiting.

The government alleged that the pharmaceutical company engaged in a scheme to set and maintain fraudulent and inflated prices for Anzemet knowing that federal health care programs established reimbursement rates based on those prices.

"Marketing drugs to doctors based on potential profits undermines confidence in the integrity of our health care system because it treats beneficiaries like commodities instead of patients," said Assistant Attorney General Peter D. Keisler.

Once again, with Taxotere, patients feel like they are being treated like a commodity. In this case, a group of breast cancer patients who feel like they are unwitting guinea pigs in a science experiment gone wrong.

"Everything has been loss," one woman wrote A Head of Our Time. A lost breast, sleep, memory. The friends who flee when they hear the word "cancer". And then the final insult: hair.

Sorry this is so long, but you need to know that permanent baldness CAN happen and Don't Assume it WON'T happen. 

It's NOT posted all over the place because it's all about the money.

The other side of the story. 

Seagrover - you just massage the olive oil into your scalp and brows. Use extra virgin. I use it at night. I have read about it in various places, including non-cancer beauty sites on how to get over-waxed brows to thicken up.

bubbaluI too am sorry you are dealing with this, especially since there might of been other cocktails you could have taken for your cancer's biology.

I do agree that people should be told. I think I found out after I started… granted not all situations are the same. I don't think I would have changed treatment. I was worried about heart issues with Herceptin so some of the other options would be more toxic. But I agree I should have been able to decide that for myself. Shame on the makers of taxotere.

www.aheadofourtime.com link doesn't exist.

OK - eyebrows and lashes are really starting to go...anyone got an idea of how long it takes for them to come back in????  I'm in the 3rd week PF**C

Dragonfly you look great. Yeah I too had my lashes thin out again and not thicken back. They are thinner than they were on chemo. I still think its from the ESD though.

You look great dragnonfly the cut does suit your face. You are so brave to get a hiarcut. I am afraid and it's been over a year for me.

My eyebrows and lashes started coming back within two or three Weeks. I'm now 5 months pfc and they're starting to thin again :-(

They went gradually. I was down to six hairs on one side and zero on the other when I noticed new ones coming in. I lost the back half of the brow first. I never lost my lashes completely but they thinned so much I might as well have. They were impossible to do anything with. Once the new lashes came in they grew quite fast. My lashes weren't great to begin with (blonde, straight and thin) but they did come back thicker than before so I'm sad to think of losing them again!