Today is my last day for rads - hoorah!!! Really pleased, but also a bit unsure after a year of treatment - chemo, mast/expander implant and rads. It will definitely seem weird not having to go to the hospital constantly - I feel like a newborn making their way into the big wide world.
Anyway, as I am coming towards the end of my treatment - finished chemo in May, my hair is about an inch long, but still feels like a brillo pad and I wondered if things will improve with time. I just can’t do anything with it at the moment and hope this isn’t permanent and the condition will improve. Anyone else had a similar experience after chemo, but their hair improved after a while. Jacqui
My hair was just like your when it first came back, but over the months it has slowly relaxed, and is gradually making its way back to its previous state - straight. To begin with it was very curly, now it is slightly wavy. I’m having it cut tomorrow, and am wondering if that will be the end of the curls. I finished chemo Sept last year.
It’s about a year since my hair came back. It was long enough to start getting it cut in January, and it’s only in the last couple of months that the curl has gone. I had it trimmed every 4-5 weeks. Initially it took ages for me to blow dry the curl out and I bought straighteners which I was useless at using, so the went back in the box after the first go.
how long was it before you ladies noticed actual progress on the hair growth front… It’s been a month since my last FEC and I have about 1mm of fluff on my head and that’s it. not sign of growth. I know I’m being impatient but just wondered when to bother looking at the mirror again
Some people seem much faster than others. I finished chemo at the end of October last year and it was not until the following June that I plucked up courage to go out in it uncovered. Nothing seemed to happen until about the March this year. I was worried as I had madly hoped for hair at Christmas - ho ho. Since I came out (as it were) it is growing faster and faster - probably because I don’t stare at it for hours every morning! Still very short by my standards though.
I am really lucky as my hair started to come back after FEC3. Am on FEC7 now and it is still growing. My follicles are obviously made of stern stuff. I have been using baby shampoo and baby conditioner or else naked shampoo and conditioner. Both seem to be gentle on hair and scalp. xxx
Mines started to come back after FEC when I was on rads, just little bits of fluff here and there. However, it came out again on Taxotere and Herceptin slowed any growth right down. I was able to uncover my head last October which was 12 months post surgery, but it was like an extremely short and silver crew cut. When I think back now, I actually feel very brave that I went out like that - I even went on holiday with it like that. I was just glad to have hair as being bald had become a bit of a drag.
