| Chemotherapy Hair Loss |
| Written by Johh Taylor | |
Most of the people often do not realize how important their hair is until they start looking them. Moreover if you are suffering from cancer then you are probably about to undergo chemotherapy in which the possibility of hair loss is quite real. It could be a case in both women and men who have reported hair loss being one of the reasons for side effects which they fear most after being diagnosed to have cancer. Therefore whether or not you experience hair loss due to chemotherapy would mostly depend on the dose and type of medication that you are provided. Moreover whether you would maintain healthy body even after hair loss would mostly depend on yoru attitude and support from your family and friends.
Hair loss and chemotherapy – the main reason why it happensThe chemotherapy drugs are in fact powerful medications which rapidly attack the growing cancer cells. Regrettably these drugs might also attach other quickly growing cells in the body which also include the hair roots. Therefore there are chemotherapy side effects such as chemotherapy could be a reason for hair loss not just on your scalp but on your entire body. Sometimes your eyebrows, eyelash, pubic, armpit and other body hair could also fall out. Some of the chemotherapy drugs are more common than other drugs for causing hair loss which can either result in mere thinning of hair to even complete baldness. Therefore you must talk to your doctor or personal physician about proper medications that you would be taking. They can even guide you on what you can expect from the medication. Luckily, in most of the cases hair loss through chemotherapy is just temporary which means that you can expect your hair to regrow after about 10 months of last treatment even though your hair might be temporarily in different texture or shade.What you must expect from hair loss and chemotherapyHair normally starts falling out after 1 to 3 weeks of starting the treatment. However it might also fall out gradually or very quickly in clumps. Moreover you would likely experience accumulation of hair loss on your pillow or in your comb or hair brush and eve in your skin or the shower drain. You will also feel you scalp is getting tender. The hair loss would continue throughout the treatment process and generally even after weeks of ending the treatment. So, whether your hair falls completely or just thins would mainly depend on the type of treatment you are going through. You can generally lose just about 50 percent of your hair much before it is noticeable to others.However it would just take a few weeks after completing the treatment for your hair to regrow and also start growing again. So, when your hair has started growing again it might probably be a bit different than the hair you previously had. However the difference would normally be temporary. The new hair you grow would have a different color or texture. This means that it could be curlier compared to what you had before or it might also be gray until the cells which control pigments in your hair start functioning in the proper manner. Is hair loss permanent with chemotherapy?There is not particular treatment which can guarantee that your hair would not fall after or during chemotherapy. Therefore the bet way to deal with hampering hair loss is actually to plan ahead and also focusing to make yourself comfortable with your prior appearance after and during your caner treatment. Fortunately there are a number of treatments been investigated to be possible ways in preventing hair loss but most of them are not effective absolutely.Scalp hypothermia – During the chemotherapy, there are ice packs placed on your head which help in flowing down blood flow to the scalp. Through this manner the chemotherapy drugs would be less likely to have an effect on the scalp. Moreover studies in chemotherapy hypothermia have also found that it works somewhat in most of the people who tried the method and not all. However this method might also cause a small jeopardy of the cancer cells recurring in the scalp as it is the area which does not receive the same dosage of drugs like other part of the body. Those people who undergo this scalp hypothermia have reported feeling having headaches and uncomfortably cold. Minoxidil – Minoxidil which is a drug approved for hair loss pattern in women and men is often applied to the scalp during and before chemotherapy is not likely to prevent hair loss even though some researches show that it might speed up your hair growth after chemotherapy. However some of the researches also need to understand whether this treatment could be affective in regrowing your hair after the cancer treatment. |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
