I know I should just be glad my hair has returned as per schedule but am having real trouble coping with the curls. Hair was always straight before and curly hair just does not suit me. Nor do I know how to deal with it now it’s getting longer. I realise this change can happen but is it likely to be permanent? Can live with the grey, it’s just the curls! I hate the way I look.
Sarcath
Hi - i don’t know what mine will look like - apart from grey - because it is still GI jane but maybe us silver haired ladies will be joining the ranks of yoof and using hair straighteners??
It is weird tho when u first notice the fluff starting - at the beginning it was OOH!!! It is less of a novelty now!!
Hi Sarcath
I don’t think it lasts.
I’ve always had wavy hair and mine came back X-tra curly. I loved it - and then it faded away, quite quickly, after a few months and went back to normal!
oh no !!! I WANT CURLY HAIR FOREVER !!!
Hi, I finished my second lot of chemo 18 months ago and my hair is still curly and wild, it grows upwards and outwards therefore i have to keep it very short. I had straight hair before chemo and i dont know how to handle this curly mass
As far as I can remember (it’s nearly 4 years ago now), I think the “chemo curls” took about 6-9 months to disappear. I kept having a trim every few weeks and I think this helped. In fact, my hair is in good shape now without a sign of any grey (I’m 57). It’s thick, shiny and in good condition - in fact, a new head of hair is my silver lining at the end of the cloud that is bc!
Hope all goes well for you.
Jo
Lucky you Jameva - I am so envious - (mine was just as you describe yours and then reverted back to type) - I found it easy to manage tho’ - it just wanted to stand up on it’s own and I let it.
Oh I LOVE my curls after all those years of dead straight. Hope they stay! No grey either at 56! Yippee! Any hair is brilliant right now.
Love to all
Dilys
xxxx
HATED my frizzy chemo curls too. Mine eventually came back the same as before, but I had to have quite a few cuts to get rid of the chemo curls. Having a hairdresser in the family helped…
Jenny
My hair came back with frizzy chemo curls and can’t wait for it to grow out and be straight again - so I hope it does. Came back totally grey and was brown before - so coloured it. Took the hairdresser a couple of goes as first try it was gingery blonde !!
Liz xx
My Shirley Temple chemo curls were throughout my hair as I had worn the cold cap and had not lost it completely. They took aout a year to go.
xxxxxx
I had chemo ten years ago and had lovely curls but they went when I had my hair cut. However my hair has been a lots thicker with more body ever since.
I had chemo again last year and now have the lovely curls again but much lighter brown than my hair was but not so many white highlights. Or are they just hidden in the curls.
When my hair started growing back at the beginning of the year, I had a mop of curls, especially on the top… I’d had poker straight hair before. I decided that I didn’t want to colour it any more, so have let Mother Nature take her course and it’s now silvery grey (maybe a bit young for that look, at 45 yrs, but I actually like it!) Anyway, after a couple of trims, I got my hairdresser to chop into it more and now it’s settled with a bit of a wave, but not the curls… I didn’t want it to look “mumsy”!!! It’s got a lot more body to it than it had ever had before… AND, I don’t seem to have lost a single hair so far… you know how there are usually a few hairs in your brushes… well, I’ve had absolutely NONE… not a single one, since my hair started growing back… weird, eh?!
AliS
Hi All
Just a query - I had taxotere and the ladies I am aware of who have had taxt their hair came back grey. Has anybody noticed this? or has yours come back grey even though you didn’t have Tax.
I spent a lot of money on perms over the years - now I want straight hair !!
Liz xx
I had tax and my hair came back grey - but then again it was grey before so no surprise really LOL
I always wanted curly hair and was happy when I developed lovely waves when my hair came back. Alas they only lasted as long as a couple of trims. My hair quickly reverted back to almost how it had been. I say almost because the texture had changed but otherwise not much difference.
However ,I know lots of women with cancer and some have had their curls stay after a couple of years (and some have been unhappy about this) so its a bit of a lottery and not much you can do about it.
Someone on this site(Pineapple?) had to wait a long time before her hair came back at all and put its eventual reappearance down to taking Brewers yeast. Maybe worth considering?
I tried Brewers Yeast but got awful headaches which I put down to that. Hair coming along now and growing quite quickly. I keep looking at it and I am sure I can see dark strands of hair or is that wishful thinking hoping the grey will disappear as well as the curls !!!
xx
I had Tax and it came back as grey as blimmin dust and I have a head full of horrible curls! It’s not getting any straighter since finishing chemo on 1st November. I know I thought I’d never moan about my hair again so long as I HAD hair, but I so hate and loathe the way I look now…! I have had it coloured but I still look like a middle-aged lady with a frizzy perm. (I am a middle-aged lady - but I don’t want to look it, lol)!
I don’t think we lose any hairs for a while…I googled and read that the life cycle of a human head hair is between 4 and 7 years, so no having to pull hair out of the plughole for a while then! Perhaps that’s why post-chemo hair seems so thick?
xxx
My hairdresser said just to keep having it trimmed and she is cutting into the top so it won’t grow big and out. I’m sure you know what I mean. I feel like Mrs Slaphead - but everybody says the look suits me but as my face is dropping south I don’t think I do suit it and will be thankful when its straight. I don’t relish the thought of having to colour it every few weeks from now on. I only had grey around the temples before. It’s not fair !!! As I said before I am sure it’s the tax but would love to hear from anybody who has had tax and it’s come back their own colour, anything but grey !!!
xx
Hi guys,
i finished 6 FECand rads end of nov 2007. i thought my hair would never grow back… but it has. It s a very short style. I had my first cut a few weeks ago. hairdresser did a good job, but of course i want my ‘old’ hair back. it is almost like if my old hair is back nice and long then everythin will be ok.
hair is very wavy and straighters do not seem to help (alhought they are weak ones) i do not want to get into the habit of straightening and have lots of split ends.
I am trying to enjoy mt ‘new’ hair and looking forward to experiemnting with all the new styles. Hair is healthy and has come back my natural color, a few strands of grey (i only 27!) but they were there before.
Everyone keeps telling me how much my hair suits me and how gorgeous i look. I still wear my wig which is just like my hair before BC.
I find when i at home i try to style and play around with it. What gives me hope i my lovely mum had BC 3 years ago and her hair is now shoulder lenght and in very good condition. She has had a few haircuts in this time.
Thank you all for your stories! Goes some way to making me feel better about the curls - I just feel they have aged me - wrinkly face plus wrinkly hair, oh no!
I did have taxotere after 3 lots of fec - lost my hair on the fec and it only started to come back when when all the chemo was over. I was going grey before so I can cope with that - or colour it - don’t dare try that yet. Can’t blame the grey on tax.
Not sure cutting would help much - it seems to curl from the roots.
I have to say short hair is very easy and cool when it’s hot but …!!
Sarcath