My friend has just had her first chemo and is using a cold cap to hopefully minimise hairloss. She has been told not to use hair dye during chemo as her hair will be fragile and regular permanent dyes will be too harsh and more likely to result in hair loss. She’s very grey naturally and the idea of having grey roots coming through is almost as terrifying as losing the hair altogether. The nurses suggested she investigates natural, vegetable dyes, which will be more gentle on the hair, but I just checked with a hairdresser friend of mine and her advice is not to use anything, as even vegetable dyes may lead to loss of hair.
So… finally getting around to my question… has anyone dyed their hair during chemo? What brands did you use and were results good (ie good grey cover and no hair damage)? Or would you all recommend my friend just steers well clear of colouring her grey?
I hope your friend is coping well with her treatment and the cold cap is successful for her. I would follow my BCN’s advice and NOT colour the hair during treatment. The cold cap doesnt always totally work and the hair that does fall out can leave the scalp very tender.
They usually advise using the organic veg dyes when the hair first regrows (It should start to come through about a month after last chemo ) Ordinary hair dyes about 26 weeks after the last treatment. Ladies find that the hair is quite resistant to colours for many months afterwards.
Best wishes to you and your friend you sound very supportive
I tried the coldcap but sadly it didnt work for me. Lost it all on day 17 following first lot of chemo so I didnt have to worry about colouring during the treatment! Hair returned quickly but all grey, onc advised not to colour for 6 months but I found a natural dye called “Naturtint” - can buy online or from Holland and Barrett. It is very gentle - no amonia at all and comes in all shades - I hope your friend is more successful with the cold cap. Its a bit hit n miss whether this dye would damage her hair during chemo - some ladies have posted on here who found it ok, send her my best wishes x
Ive been using the cold cap and have had very good results so far (fingers crossed - just had 4th out of 6 sessions) but I think half the success is to do as little as possible to your hair. I only wash it once a week, use only baby shampoo, no products, and no hair driers or straighteners. So, I personally wouldnt advice a hair dye. There is plenty of hair advice from the cold cap companies (just google)and I would recommend following their advice.
Wish your friend good luck from all of us on here, with the cold cap and probably more importantly, with all her treatment!
Thanks for everyone’s replies. I’ll mention Naturtint to my friend and then she can decide whether it’s worth it… assuming the cold cap works for her and she retains her hair long enough for the grey roots to need touching up. From what I gather, the cold cap is only 50/50 effective, and depends on which drugs she’s on - which I don’t know, as she herself doesn’t like to know. Even if the cold cap works, I gather her hair is still likely to thin.
One more question… if she is going to lose hair (all or thinning) does this generally start happening around day 17-20 post 1st chemo, or does this vary enormously from person to person? I guess I’m trying to prepare both myself and her for the future, and get a trip to a wig shop planned… which perhaps we should do sooner rather than later?
I have been using the coldcap throughout my treatments I have had 3 FEC, and 1 taxol, will be due my second Taxol on Wednesday,
I found that I lost a lot of hair from the 18th day of first fec to around the middle of the second cycle, it then slowed down, but I have shedded a bit more than normal throughout all the treatments,
I wear my hair shoulder lengh and it was thick to start with, it is now very thin but fortunately it as thinned all over, normally I do lighten my hair, but wouldn’t recommmend doing so throughout treatment, to be honest you forget about that and are just grateful to maintain some hair, even though it isn’t in good condition; I hope it works for your friend because I know it can be distressing, i did visit a wig shop just to prepare myself, just in case, so I would recommend that to.
Hello
I tried the cold cap but it didn’t work for me and most of my hair fell out 19 / 20 days after the first FEC. The onc had told me that if people are going to lose their hair after FEC it usually starts to happen 2 - 3 weeks after the first one.
When my hair came back I was anxious to cover up the grey and bought a gentle ammonia free product - Daniel Field Natural Colours – which didn’t seem to do any harm to my new hair.
Good luck everyone
Anthi x
