I love it! I’ve always had fine hair but with a sort of kink in it. Now I have a head of thick curly hair which is about an inch and a half long. My hair used to be near my shoulders but this short curly hair really suits me. I want to keep these curls!!
I guess the curls will eventually go - how long though might I possibly enjoy them?
Gill
Hi Gill, I had very fine straight hair before chemo. This time last year (I finished chemo in June 2007) it was really curly and I too liked it like that. It has now straightened a bit due to the length, it’s more wavy than curly! but if I put the diffuser attachment on my hairdryer I can still make it really curly. I have gone back to using the straighteners for most of the time. if it gets wet it goes really wild looking!
I imagine that everyone is different - (like in their responses to all the treatment!)
take care
Nicky
Hi Nicky
Thanks for your response. You’re a year ahead of me - I’m encouraged that your hair is wavy. Right now I just wash and go - something I could never do previously. I hope in a year’s time I’m able to state that at the least, my hair is wavy! I too imagine we’re all different … I so hope I’m able to keep something of these curls!
Thanks a lot!
Gill
Hi
I finished my chemo begining of oct 07 and my hair is still curly, I don’t like it though i prefer my straight hair.
I finished chemo Sept 07. Previously my hair was fine and straight. When it came back it was curly. Now, each time I have it cut it is getting straighter. At the moment it is a bit wavy, which I like, and wish it would stay just like this! But everyone I know has had their hair eventually back to what it was before.
The only thing I was looking forward to when I was told i needed chemo was the curly chemo hair! Have always had dead straight hair so was really looking forward to getting curls. But i never got any!! It grew back just the same!
xxJools
I finished chemo in May this year and love my curly new hair ,am delaying getting it trimmed as it is so convenient and looks good too ,my hair was always fine and messed up easily,so this is a definite improvement
Laura
There was no way I wanted curly hair and as it was growing back I could see the curls starting to form so I decided that if I kept having it trimmed every 4 weeks or so (I have very fast growing hair) it would stop the curls forming properly and hey presto it worked.
The problem I have now is that having been on Arimidex for 18months it has affected the ‘quality’ of my hair and although I have as much as I did pre-chemo the strands are a lot finer than they used to be, even my hairdresser passed comment about it last time I had it cut! I know it says in the blurb that one of the many side effect of Arimidex is that it causes hair thinning but I had assumed it would be the quantity not the quality that it affected!!
But as they say ‘Each to their Own’ and may those who want to keep the curls, keep them for as long as they want, and those who don’t, lose them as quickly as possible
Fran
I finished my chemo at the end of May and my curls seem to be getting tighter by the day. Its about 2 inches long now and soooooooooooo thick. Ladies I have asked say they last about a year.
Regards Judy
Hi there,
Mine came in curly and was previously very straight.( finishes fec Jan 08) With each trim the curls are going but its still a bit wavy. Its also very thick and growing in all directions. When I get out of bed in the morning I look like I,ve had an electric shock. I think that the only solution is to keep growing it and eventually it will calm down a bit.
Love Andrea xx
Hello
I thought I would post about my hair, I had quite thick wavy/frizzy hair before chemo, which I did dislike to the extent that I used to have it permanentally straightened at the hair dresser (it’s like a reverse perm) obviously lost all my hair on chemo Jan - April 07, it has actually come back different, the reverse to you guys, my hair has gone straighter (Yeah) can’t believe it, I thought it would go ever curlier, but very happy that now I don’t have to have it straightened, still have to use straighteners occasionally but not every day, I’m very pleased, does take a while for hair to return to normal, still have a little patch on the crown where still have no hair, but my hairdresser remains positive this will grow back in time, still on arimidex/zoladex so this may be the reason for this.
Good luck to you all.
Lovely x
I have (soon to be past tense) long hair which is neither straight or curly and to be honest its just looks a mess unless I straighten everyday religiously so it will be interesting to see how it comes back, I’m hoping for poker straight, but if its nice curly then I will be happy… I will just be grateful for it to come back!
I thought mine was coming back straight when I finished chemo a year ago, but as it grew, the curlier it became until I looked like Shirley flippin Temple! It was long and straight before.
I have had it cut a couple of times now, but again, as it grows, so the curls come back, although I THINK it may be straightening out a bit.
It was fun at first, but boy, I’m beginning to want the old ME back now!
As for it coming back thicker - I Googled and found that the life-span of a human hair is around 4 years, after which time, it is shed and a new hair grows in its place. So as ours hasn’t been on our heads for very long, we don’t actually shed any yet. Maybe that’s why it appears thicker.
Which beggars the question…what the heck happens after the four years are up, eh? :)))
xxx
I’ve really enjoyed reading everyone’s responses and shall just make the most of the curls whilst I still have them.
Justme, perhaps we all go bald again after 4 years!!!
And Jools … poor you! I so understand your comments. Like you, the possibility of thicker, curlier hair was the only thing to look forward to … how disappointing for you!
Gill
I echo some of the above comments… I always had straight hair, but it grew back in curly… I rather liked the change, but with each trim, it got less curly and now - a year after the end of chemo - it’s pretty much back to what it was before. I was kind of sorry to see the curls go!! I decided not to start colouring it again, so it’s short and silvery / grey… maybe I’m a bit young for that at 45 yrs, but I’m just glad to have hair, and don’t want any nasty chemicals on my head any more… and I actually like it!!
AliS
I am looking forward to different hair so probably my hair wont change! I had thick hairs but it had thinned and what had once been a bush of wiry hair as a teenager had become thinnish curlyish frizziyish hair which then about 8 years ago got spots of alopaecia. I decided against the cold cap and went for “bring on the bald” in the hope that some good will come out of this BC and I will have newer improved hair! Also keeping fingers crossed that the chemo wont send my alopaecia into overdrive and I end up with none!!
O, x