I am 4 months post chemo and now have a very short crop. my hair is thicker and curlier. The wig has got to come off at some point and i have to get used to this new person looking at me in the mirror. the wig has been like a security blanket throughout treatment.
Anyone got any tips or advice on how to style very short hair after treatment. i would rather not get cut as i do want to grow. At the moment i feel like Marge Simpson with my hair growing upwards!
would be gratful for any advice
I am nearly six months on from chemo. I took my scarf off for the last time on Jan 31. I had been planning to wait till Feb half term when we went on holiday, but got up one morning & couldn’t do the scarf thing anymore. It was a bit nerve wracking going into work, but everyone was very kind & said how much my new short hair suits me. Still haven’t decided if they were telling the truth or just being kind!
My hair stays flat at the sides, but like yours sticks up on top. No solutions I’m afraid, just wanted you to know you’re not the only one. I’m thinking I may need some gel on it soon to stop it being so unruly. Having always had fine straight hair, I don’t know what to do with the short fluffy stuff I have now. Is it going to turn into some sort of afro?
My hair has suddenly decided to turn into an Afro! I finished chemo last September and my hair grew quite quickly. In fact it’s been cut twice as I like it very short but i woke up one morning about a month ago and couldn’t do anything with it. If it gets damp it goes just like the perm my grandmother used to have, really tight curls! It just seemed to go curly overnight and very very dry. My hairdresser recommended using Vitapointe but I have found using half a handful of almond oil rubbed between both hands seems to help it keep a more natural curl rather than looking like curly straw. Hope this helps!
Sharon
Hi Nadia,
I was EXACTLY the same as you. Finished chemo at the end of of June last year and swore my wigs would not come off whilst I had a “cancer crop”. I hated my hair as was a horrible colour (made worse by the fact that I tried to home dye it and it turned orange), frizzy and unmanagable.I felt soooooooooooo ugly!!! (prior to cancer it was long, blonde and straight)
We booked to go to barbados in december and I knew I would have to sort my hair before we went as I would not get away with a wig on holiday-anyway, to cut a long story short, I gave my hairdresser free reign and the result was stunning! I was so pleased and I had at least 5 strangers both in the UK and Barbados come up to me and comment on my hair. My hairdresser dyed great big chunks of it bright blonde and bright pillar box red (totally un- me) but it looked great! I used to wear little sparkly grips in it, which gave it a girly look and it was great. I think when your hair is dead dead short, maybe its betterer to make a statement with colour as there is not usually much you can do by way of style.
My hair is now longer and though I would not choose to go back to the style and length it was at that time, it WAS bearable and it DID look good
Just go for it and see what your hairdresser comes up with- you may well be like me and be very pleasantly surprised!!! Good Luck
Katyx
Hi there…
I’m almost 12 months on from last chemo so quite a bit further down the road from you two ladies.
My hair is driving me crazy!! or course I’m very glad to have it back, but like you Nadia mine was fine and straight before.
Thick curly mop now, I’m wondering if we are lumbered with this or will it settle down in time?
Perhaps some one can let us know.
I treated myself to some ghd hair straighteners but it still does’nt look right and I think I need a lot of practise, gotta few burnt fingers OUCH!!!
Linda xx
I know you said you don’t want to get it cut, but mine grew really quickly once I had that first cut made (3 months after last chemo). Go and see your hairdresser, mine was really good and she just evened it up all over. Following the second cut, just 4 weeks later, because it had grown so much, I had one of those makeovers done the following day. My hair looked so shiny and healthy and even the photographer commented on the style. I suppose I was lucky with the colour, I was white before chemo and it came back the same colour.
I am 12 months post chemo, and haven’t had a haircut yet! Can’t stand the thought of scissors near it. My hair was very long and wavy before, and now it is a lot curlier than it ever was before. I use pantene curl defining mousse on mine, just scrunch it through and point the hair dryer at it and it comes out great, lovely, thick and curly.
This also stops it going into a ball of frizz, would recommend it.
Just wondered how long it takes before it gets back to the same texture as before, if anyone knows?
Meantime, just enjoying having hair to style again!
I so glad i thought I was the only one with an Afro. i think a trip to the hairdressers is needed, just for a tidy up and some hair advice. Feeling brave and i am building up for a trip into town with my very short hair, feel a bit ugly and this new hair style adds on 10 years to my face. I will take a hat with me just in case gets to scary. i am sure it will be fine. Thanks again for the advice.
I’ve got the sticking up Afro look too and I know exactly how you feel. I had my last chemo on 1st May last year and didn’t go to the hairdresser until the end of January this year.
My hair came back a mixture of mouse/grey/white and I coloured it a dark blonde myself for a few months and then finally plucked up the courage to go to the hairdresser. I was very reluctant to have it cut so she just tidied it up and it did make it look better. Then she put in 3 different shades of blonde which look very good. But it’s very curly. I always had straight shiny hair and have little idea how to manage the curls but I find that John Frieda Blonde Gleam Cream helps a bit.
My chemo finished in May last year and by November I had a lovely little wavy head of hair. Now it is a mass of lovely brown curls, which is great, if you read in the papers, curly hair is coming back with a vengence. I used to be ginger and not a kink in sight, so Im delighted with my new hair and I dont need to pay for a perm now. I hope it stays this way.
I’m not sure how long the curl lasts, but I know several ladies who’ve had BC and they’re hair is back to normal now. The most recent one was dx 3 years ago.
My hair came back very grey and curly too. It was shoulder length and very fair before and obviously been highlighted by the sun. I finished chemo in September and had my first ‘tidy up’ at the end of Feb and had some cap highlights put in - just to give it a bit of colour. It looked ok, although extremely short and not my normal look at all, but most people actually liked me with short and curly hair. I did not have a proper haircut for another 6 months after that, so about 9 months in all after end of chemo. It has taken about 2 years for it to grow back to chin length, it has now straightened out as well - probaly the weight of hair - and is slowly coming back to blonde, having had a sun holiday last year which helped. But I think everyones hair grows at a different speed , so go with it, enjoy the elfin look and treat it gently with lots of conditioner and hair packs.
I think my curls lasted for about three years but it was such a gradual change - each time I had my hair cut it seemed to grow back just a little bit less curly - that it’s hard to say exactly.
wow - i’m so surprised that it can change after a few years. i’ve always had dead straight hair - not even a small kink!!! now i support a afro - about 1 and 1/2 inches long - chemo finished sept last year. i took it to be that i’d always keep these curls and that it wouldn’t change back - oh well i’d better not get too used to them then!!!
I had chemo ten years ago and my hair came back with lovely curls. However once I had my hair cut (about a year later) they were gone and never returned, although my hair remained thicker. My hair is now growing after finishing chemo in Nov but I have not yet a curl in sight!
Since writing this post I have been out a few times with my ‘new hair’ I am quite short at 5.1", so one way back from gym with sports gear and cap some young boys started trying to talk to me… (i am 27) I ignored them and carried on walking… as I was walking oof one of then shouted ‘p**s off then and grow some hair’. i was close to tears, but held them back, i felt vunerable and was doing ok till that horrible b******d said that. i was strong though and rose above it. what goees around come around!!
anyway it is gerat to have hair back and looking forwad to the funky style can try.