I finished chemo FEC-T at the end of August having had my last treatment on 26th August, my concern is that although I have a very light covering of hair it seems very patchy and from a distance I still look bald!
All I have read is how people just a few weeks after treatment have a head of very short hair and even have enough to go without a wig! My hair prior to treatment was very thick and I had a lot of it!
No one seems to have had the same problem, my oncologist and BCN are far from helpful! They just shrug and smile!
Has anyone here taken any supplements or used anything on their scalp that they feel has aided their hair growth and if so what was it?
I coped well with diagnosis, Mx, chemo (to an extent) and sailed through DXT with no side effects but now everything seems to be going wrong! Even had complications having the portacath fitted for administration of herceptin, I still don’t think it seems right but no one will listen to me all they keep telling me is it’s ok!
Sorry to rant but I feel bit better now! Lol
Hope you are doing well and hope this year is good to you all,
Tigs xx
Aww Tigs, I feel for you - dont give up hope - it will come back! I am exactly a year ahead of you - last christmas I had a very short covering of hair. This is a recent pic of me a year on - with 2 or 3 trims. We are all different, but it will come, just hang on in there xx all the best, Debbie x
Think we are all different. Don’t despair. I finished chemo at the end of October 2007 and was utterly confident I would have hair for Christmas. Nothing. Then for my birthday in February. A light dusting. In the end I went “commando” in the June - still very short but bearable.
It WILL come back. The waiting and hoping is awful. Sadly hair comes back where you don’t want it (legs, chin etc) before it manages it on your head!
Finished my chemo in September, also HER2 pos. Also have a problem with my port. (Add me to view cancer bio on profile).
Well I kept my hair because I used a cold cap BUT… I did lose some around the sides where the cap didn’t fit properly. I’d say that it’s only in the last few weeks that it’s started sprouting there, so I doubt you’re that far off… 4 months seems to be when people start saying they look like they have hair. If you’ve got fair hair I guess it’d take longer to notice. Traditional thing around the Med for hair growth is olive oil massage on scalp… guess it can’t hurt!
Hang on in there. My bet is that if you look back at this thread in a month, you’ll be able to add a message saying you are beginning to get it all back.
You could have a chat with your hairdresser. Mine told me this could happen and has advised me to have the first half inch clipped off again. She told me that the first growth is slow growing and it will grow quicker with the first growth taken away.
Not sure how true this is but may be worth a chat to see what they think.
Thanks for all your comments, I’m sure you’re all right and it will come back eventually! If it wasn’t going to come back I’m sure it wouldn’t come back anywhere! I’m just impatient and wanting something to go right for a change! Lol
Tigs xx
I finished my chemo at the end of March and it wasn’t until July that I went without my headscarf. Looking back at photos from then and in to the summer holidays I actually had very little hair. I did have the ends cut off sometime in August and since then I have grown a good head of curly hair and have had 2 haircuts since. It seemed to grow all of a sudden.
It may be worth taking a photo of yourself every couple of weeks so tht you can see how much it has actually grown - I thought mine had stopped growing, until I went back to school after the October holiday and everyone commented on how much it had grown.
Hi Tigs, I finished 4 FEC, 2 TAX and 3 Abraxane on the 10th of September… thought I would have hair by now also, but only have very short ‘fluff’… insult on top of injury, its came back dark brown with grey!! I was hoping for three shades of natural blonde.
If the 4 month rule applies to me, I should start seeing some good growth soon - until then, its me and my wigs.
Marguerite
PS… if the hair on my head grew the same as my legs, I would have a Bob by now!
I used minoxidil serum twice a day and revita growth shampoo, I supplemented after checking with medics with collagen, silica, vit b complex and magnesium. I finished fec/tax in July and have 3-4 inches now. I took a picture every week and found it very helpful looking back and seeing gradual progress! X
I finished chemo back end of august ive been using hairfood its on a mission now started to use it when it first started to grow was still doin chemo at the time took it to my onc before i started to use it he said had all the right ingredients and would be ok to use hope this helps
Hi Tigerlily- you don’t say how old you are- and your age may be significant
I don’t want to depress you as I think it’s more than likely that your hair WILL re-grow although the speed of growth obviously does vary from person to person
Unfortunately I am one of the freaks whose hair has not re-grown! I have to believe that there are VERY few like me ( I have only heard of one on these forums & never met any others at hospital etc) …so I think it is highly unlikely that you will be so unlucky !
It is 2 years since I finished chemotherapy and my hair is still very, very thin and with a parting wide anough to drive a bus along. No-one is interested at the hospital- my onc was quite dismissive about it - "it’s your age (60+) and the Arimidex and loss of oestrogen; it happens sometimes; maybe your hair was thinning before treatment? " (It wasn’t : it was thick and wavy!)
I reckon I have about a third of the hair that I had before treatment and what I have is very fine and flyaway so doesn’t look good. It does grow a little in length so I have it trimmed very short in the hope of it thickening up but no luck so far. My hairdresser tries to encourage me…(apparently she has old lady clients who are even more bald than me!) but it IS depressing . I am just grateful to the NHS for providing me with 2 wigs each year @ £60 each - and the Trevor Sorbie- trained wig cutter who trims them for me.
I do miss my ‘old hair’ but have had to become reconciled to wearing wigs whenever I am out of doors: maybe in 3 years when I finish Arimidex , it MAY re-grow but I am not holding my breath. The various ‘miracle’ pills, creams & lotions etc do NOT make any difference so don’t waste your money on them. Just use a good shampoo and conditioner and massage your scalp as much as possible. I am sure you will soon have your hair back.
Hi Tigerlily, have you had a look at Trevor Sorbie’s my new hair website, it explains a lot about follicle growth after Chemo etc. Hair is built from proteins and needs amino acids to grow so a healthy balanced diet is important. A good massage can encourage blood supply to your scalp which helps, too. Silica and zinc are vital along with vit b complex as they are essential nutrients to build cells incl hair cells. You can get these through your diet or supplements. Good Luck. X
I started FEC-T in October and have had the 3 fec and 1 tax with 2nd tax due next week.
I had my hair cut short before starting, clipped it to 1cm all over when started serious shedding and then to a numbet 1…
However…very little then departed and it started growing! So i have a fine fluff all over plus what was left, my ‘side burns’ coz didnt shave em off. I have my eyebrows and 90% of eyelashes…chin hair still has to be dealt with as keeps going strong all arm n leg hair thinner and slow growing but still there ditto all other hair…
So what I want to know is…
Will I get to 3rd tax and then it all burgers off, am i unusual, am i usual, will it just keep on growing???..I really need some help as keep asking in chemo unit to blank faces…
My photo on my fb page is of me at my least hair, ( what terrible grammar!). It never totally totally went bald znd sideburns were last to go and first to come back which helped as I wore a trusty cap most of the time. At your stage I had prob same as you are describing but then lashes and brows went, prob nearerto final tax. Back now, last Chemo was august. Hair which grew on Chemo wasrubbish thin stuff. I did a number 1 cut all over after Chemo to start from scratch and seemed to encourage thicker growth. If I was where u r now, think I’d shave it again. X
Everyone is different, but I hate to say I lost all my lashes after my last tax, even though I never lost all of my hair or eyebrows, though they thinned a lot. I waited three weeks after last tax, when I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to lose anymore hait and did a grade 2 on my head to even it up. I thought it was easier to do in then as I was used to not having v much hair. Hair regrowth after tax 1 or 2 seems quite common.