Hi Fellow Travellers,
I’ve been told that the chemo drugs stay in your system for two weeks and the third week is for recovery. Does that mean that you get a week of hair growth? Or am I being over-optimistic?
I would welcome any feedback. I’m halfway through chemo and have been using the cold cap and have gone from thick, short hair to thin, short hair but there’s still enough ,so far, for indoors. I wear my glam wig for special occasions.
Many thanks and lots of positivity to all,
Julie
Hi Lovemywig
The actual chemo drugs only stay in your system for 3-4 days. If you have the E, the red stuff - the indicator is - no longer pink wee - then they have flushed through your system… However the drugs continue working all the way through. So, hence it would be unusual to have any hair regrowth, whilst on chemo. Although it has to be said much depends on your actual treatment. Some experience some growth post chemo 5, if on 6 x FEC.
I cannot say about any other regimes, perhaps someone else can share their experience.
Hope this is of help.
Hugs
Sue xx
Sorry lovemywig, Sue is quite right, i wish she werent…youll prob have to wai till the end…after all each time you have the chemo, it will kill off any new hair…even if it had grown.
so sorry
Moijan ( alias Hairless Hattie)
Hi Julie,
I think it very much depends on the chemo regime you are on. I did FEC-T and all the hair loss happened a few days after FEC 2, although it had started to shed earlier (despite the cold cap). But, once I moved onto the T it started showing signs of coming back and the loss definitely slowed down. I’ve heard a lot of other people report this too.
Don’t let my experience with the cold cap put you off continuing by the way. I lost a lot on top and looked like a monk so got the clippers out as it was not a good look for me. I think I would have kept some hair but decided that for me it was all or nothing at all.
xx
Hi Julie,
I’m now just about to have my 6th and final FEC. My hair began to reappear just before my 5th and is now quite fuzzy. Consequently I’ve begun to look into the many ‘miracle’ hair regrowth products that people talk about. Because my cancer is oestrogen positive I’ve been keen to avoid products with parabens in as I wanted to minimise the risk of hormone disrupters (breastcancer.org/risk/factors/cosmetics) so I looked into the ingredients of such products as I weighed up the pros and cons of going for accelerated growth or waiting for nature.
Two often mentioned are Nioxin and Regaine. Nioxin’s ingredients are listed here: askdocweb.com/nioxin.html and do include parabens which rules it out for anyone choosing to avoid these. I wasn’t overkeen on the side effects reported either: nioxinreviews.co.uk/nioxin-side-effects/ Regaine initially scores better as I couldn’t find parabens listed so that was a plus. However it does contain Butylated Hydroxytoluene (BHT) which is not at all pleasant and certainly not something I would want anywhere near me. There is evidence to suggest that it mimics oestrogen and may act as a carcinogen but that is far from conclusive and it remains a controversial ingredient (truthinaging.com/review/what-is-it-bht).
In favour of these products is the fact that we are unlikely to be using them for long but whatever our personal decision, it is good to know what goes into them so we can make informed choice.
So my conclusion is that I’m leaving nature to take its own course. I have blogged about it further gettingabreastofthesituation.wordpress.com/2016/09/13/to-hurry-or-not-to-hurry/
Hope that helps,
B x