The Effects of Hair Loss Following Chemotherapy

The Effects of Hair Loss Following Chemotherapy - You might not think about how important your hair is until you face losing it. And if you have cancer and are about to undergo chemotherapy, the chance of hair loss is very real. Both men and women report hair loss as one of the side effects they fear most after being diagnosed with cancer.

Hair loss happens because the chemotherapy affects all cells in the body, not just the cancer cells. The lining of the mouth, stomach, and the hair follicles are especially sensitive because those cells multiply rapidly just like the cancer cells. The difference is that the normal cells will repair themselves, making these side effects temporary.

The Effects of Hair Loss Following Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy may be described as treatment of cancer with different drugs and chemicals. It has been seen that majority of patients undergoing chemotherapy suffer from hair loss. The reason is hair follicle cells grow quite fast and the drugs used for chemotherapy attack any cell growing and attacks healthy hair follicle cells also.

Can hair loss be prevented during chemotherapy treatment? There is no known way to prevent chemotherapy-induced hair loss. However, not all chemotherapy medications cause hair loss. You should consult with your doctor about the type of treatment recommended for you and what its side effects are likely to be.

Whether or not you lose your hair depends in part on the specific medication and dosage administered. Women should consider visiting a wig salon before they begin losing their hair so that the specialist may become familiar with her present hairstyle and color.

Some wig salons specialize in hair loss from chemotherapy and are able to offer women specific advice. A wig specialist may also wish to measure the woman's head size to make sure an average wig will fit. Custom-made wigs sometimes take several weeks to have made.

Chemotherapy drugs are powerful medications that attack rapidly growing cancer cells. Unfortunately, these drugs also attack other rapidly growing cells in your body - including those in your hair roots. 

Chemotherapy hair loss, and changes in skin and body can be devastating after effects of cancer treatment. Fortunately, most of the time hair loss from chemotherapy is temporary. You can expect to regrow a full head of hair six months to a year after your treatment ends, though your hair may temporarily be a different shade or texture.

Remember the hair loss from chemotherapy is temporary. It usually starts to grow back about six weeks after the person finishes their chemotherapy, and it may look and feel different from the person's original hair. It may be curlier or a slightly different color.

Sometimes hair grows in grey until the person's hair color (also called pigment) cells begin to work again. Most people will have a full head of hair again about six months to a year after they stop taking chemotherapy.

The decrease in blood cell counts does not occur right at the start of chemotherapy because the drugs do not destroy the cells already in the bloodstream (these are not dividing rapidly). Instead, the drugs affect new blood cells that are being made by the bone marrow.

Radiation only causes hair loss on the particular part of the body treated. If radiation is used to treat the breast, there is no hair loss on your head. But there might be loss of hair around the nipple, for women who have hair in that location. Radiation to the brain, used to treat metastatic cancer in the brain, usually causes complete hair loss on the head.

Cold caps don't work for everyone. They only block certain drugs and are not suitable for use in all types of cancer. You can't really have scalp cooling if there is too high a risk that cancer cells could be presenting the scalp blood vessels.

This is because there would be a possibility that the cells in the scalp blood vessels would not be killed by the chemotherapy. It certainly is not advisable for leukemia or lymphoma treatment, for example. You cannot wear a cold cap if you are having continuous chemotherapy through a pump either, because you would have to wear the cold cap all the time, 24 hours a day.

Chemotherapy is very effective in killing cancer cells, but it also affects normal cells as well. The strength of the drugs used in chemotherapy causes side effects that can bring discomfort and inconvenience. Typical side effects of chemotherapy include gastrointestinal tract problems, hair loss, low blood cell counts, skin rashes, fatigue, and infertility.

It is important to remember that most side effects are manageable, and if they become problematic, there is medication to treat them.

Chemotherapy and It's Effects

Diagnosed with breast cancer, I was aware about the effects that I would be going through. But there were a few that I didn't know about.

Chemotherapy Effects

1. Chemotherapy can make you sick. Vomiting is a side effect that everyone has. If it's not food coming back up then, it's a mucus like substance. Either way, it can put a strain on yourself and your body.

2. Losing your hair. It didn't take long after my first or second chemo treatment, that I noticed my hair was falling out. Each time I brushed my hair there were more and more hair strands. Eventually, all my hair would fall out (all over my body).

3. You get weak. The most simplest things that you would normally do would now take all your strength. Walking or climbing stairs would make your knees feel like they are going to buckle right out from under you.

4. Shortness of breath. Getting up to walk to the bathroom seemed to be a chore. It would feel as if you couldn't get enough air into your body. Now, you're tired and weak and breathing hard.

5. Your taste changes. Many say that a metallic taste stays in their mouth. Everything that you eat or try to eat or drink has a horrible taste to it. I was told not to use silverware when I ate, to buy plastic forks and spoons.

6. You're always thirsty. There is nothing that can satisfy your thirst now matter how much you try to consume. Water is the best thing, not because it will relieve your thirst, but because you're going to be drinking so, much that you need something that's good to put into your body.

7. You can get blood clots. Beware of any physical pain in your legs or arms. Pay attention to sudden bruising. This is not the time to just dismiss any changes in your body.

Things I didn't Know;

1. The tips of my fingers began to feel like they had fallen asleep. It was the only way that I knew to describe it. They were sensitive and I would often rub my fingers together to get the feeling back in them.

2. My finger nails hurt and started to curl. They began to thin and discolor. When I told the nurse about my finger nails, she told me that I could lose them and my toe nails too. I was often asked if I felt a tingling in either one.

3. Too high of dose of chemo can attach to your skin and eat it from inside out. When I started getting sores all over my body, I just ignored them, thinking that they were mosquito bites. But as time went on I went to see my doctor about them. This is when I learned that my chemo would have to be decreased because it was "eating" through my skin.

4. Confusion. My nurses called this "chemobrain" because most cancer patients had to deal with it. A simple question, forgetting where you're going or wondering what you came into the store to pick up, are just a few things that you deal with. Some people think that you're just not listening to them or that you're doing it on purpose, when the fact is that you're not.

5. Your eyes water. Often your eyes will just start to water. People may ask you why, you're crying, when in fact you just have watery eyes. It's advised to carry a tissue with you or have some nearby.

I'm sure there are a few more things that I haven't mentioned. We may all deal with our chemotherapy in different ways, but it's the outcome that counts.