For most people who experience hair loss after starting chemotherapy, their hair almost always starts to grow back once their treatment is over. Sometimes hair may even start to grow back before treatment has finished. However, some people can experience permanent hair loss.
They can tell you what to expect. Fortunately, most of the time hair loss from chemotherapy is temporary. You can expect to regrow your hair three to six months after your treatment ends, though your hair may temporarily be a different shade or texture.
Try hair regrowth treatment
Some research has suggested that minoxidil (Rogaine) might speed up hair regrowth or reduce hair loss during chemotherapy. Doctors may, for example, recommend Rogaine for people who have had tamoxifen therapy for breast cancer.
Your hair can grow back an entirely different colour. Your perfectly beautiful brunette mop might grow back grey and vice versa. It's not uncommon to become a redhead after chemo when you were a brunette before.
It generally takes about 48 to 72 hours for your body to break down and/or get rid of most chemo drugs. But it's important to know that each chemo drug is excreted or passed through the body a bit differently.
Chemo curls are generally not permanent and should reduce with time. Other changes to the color and texture of the hair should also go away as the drugs leave the body after treatment. In the meantime, gentle care and styling can make managing the hair much more straightforward.
As your body starts to recalibrate after chemotherapy, your hair will likely return to its usual texture and color within months to a year. The pattern of hair loss and regrowth is different for every person going through chemotherapy, and may be related to age, treatment tolerance and personal health history.
You can ask your hairdresser to suggest henna dyes or vegetable based dyes for you. These are gentler on the hair than the other types of hair colouring. So hair specialists think it is safe to use them.
Chemotherapy drugs target cancer cells which stop or slow their growth. A person undergoing chemotherapy should avoid eating undercooked or raw food, interacting with actively infectious people, overexerting themselves, and consuming too much alcohol.
Biotin supplements are available as pills, soft gels or gummies. They are taken alone or combined with other vitamins for healthy skin, nails, and hair.
Wash and condition your hair every 2 to 4 days. Use baby shampoo or other mild shampoo (such as Aveeno® or Vanicream™). You should also use a cream rinse or hair conditioner. Use shampoos and conditioners that have sunscreen to prevent sun damage to your scalp.
You can generally wear your hair normally for the first few days, but by the third or fourth day (after the two week mark) you'll be ready to comb out what's left and cut it short, if you haven't already. Whether or not to cut your hair before you begin treatment is a matter of personal preference.
Head hair usually goes first, followed by hair from other areas of the body. But again, everyone responds differently, so it could be sooner or later, depending on the individual. Is there any way of preventing or minimizing hair loss caused by cancer treatment? No, not really.
Pat on concealer to hide reddish or dark areas. Then apply a warm tone foundation, blending into your neck for a natural look. Use a powder blush for long lasting color, applying blush upwards from cheek to hair line. Use left-over powder on the brush to give a glow to your forehead and chin.
Most people say that initially following chemotherapy treatment their new hair growth does seem different then before treatment. It can take a while for new hair to fully regenerate and so the first hairs can often be finer and a different texture then before.
Approximately 65% of individuals undergoing chemotherapy will experience chemotherapy-induced hair loss, which is usually temporary and completely reversible when therapy ends. The use of molecularly targeted agents in cancer treatment has also been associated with hair loss rates as high as 60%.
While not as common, some cancer patients do experience changes in eye color during the more intensive forms of treatment like radiation or treatment with chemotherapy drugs.
Why Do Chemo Curls Happen? Although there are not yet clear answers on why chemotherapy causes many people's hair to grow back in wavy, curly or more textured than before, it is clear that hair follicle cells are very much affected by various cancer drugs.
A number of chemo drugs, for example, don't cause hair loss because they are better able to target cancer cells – not healthy cells. Doctors can choose from more than 100 different chemo drugs, used in many combinations, to treat specific types of cancer and related diseases.
Short, planned delays in chemotherapy for good-risk GCT patients (less than or equal to 7 days per cycle) appear to be acceptable since they may prevent serious toxicity in this curable patient population. Delays of longer than 7 days are strongly discouraged except in extraordinary life-threatening circumstances.
It is safe to touch other people while on chemotherapy. You can hug and kiss. But you do need to protect others from coming into contact with your medicine.