Chemotherapy Hair Loss

One of the most frequent side effect of cancer treatments is chemotherapy hair loss. Why does one lose hair during chemotherapy? Well, the drugs used in this type of cancer treatment are very strong, therefore very efficient in attacking the rapidly developing cancer cells. There are normal body cells with a rapid growth rate, and they are not cancer; the cells in the digestive tract and the hair follicles are the main examples here. The effects of chemotherapy on hair are manifest for all the body parts covered by hair. Thus, patients will experience the loss of eyebrows, eyelashes, pubic and armpit hair.

There is a wide variety of drugs that are used in chemotherapy. Some of these will trigger chemotherapy hair loss more quickly than others, but some may not even cause such a side effect. The difference in chemotherapy drug doses is another aspect to consider when hair loss is under discussion, as hair loss ranges from thinning to complete baldness. Thus, make sure to discuss all such details with your doctor, in order to be prepared to cope with hair loss psychologically.

In most cases you’ll start losing hair within ten or fourteen days after you start chemotherapy. It may happen quite fast, gradually or in clumps. Hair loss usually continues throughout the treatment and even one month after it. Half of the hair can fall out before this is noticed by people around. Fortunately, in the majority of cases, chemotherapy hair loss is a temporary effect. Hair can be expected to grow back within six months to one year from the end of the procedure. The new hair could have a slightly different shade of color, with the mention that even the texture could be altered too.

The hair recovery period after chemotorapy is six weeks on the average, and the growth rate will be somewhere around a quarter inch per month. When the hair starts growing back again, it might be a little different from the hair that was lost because of therapy. The color and texture alteration will be a first recovery sign and the hair will recover the look previous to the treatment the moment the cells that control the hair pigment begin working again. Unfortunately, one cannot prevent chemotherapy hair loss as none of the treatments available is completely free of such side effects.

Filed Under: Chemotherapy