Chemotherapy Hair Loss

admin — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:52:00 +0000

Chemotherapy hair loss is one of the numerous effects of this cancer treatment. What is the reason why hair loss occurs 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. These medicines also attack other cells in the body that have a rapid growth; 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. Among these, obviously some are more likely to cause chemotherapy hair loss than others. 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 the hair will be gone without one even noticing. Luckily, in most cases, chemotherapy hair loss represents a temporary effect. Hair can be expected to grow back within six months to one year after the cessation of the treatment. Although the regrowth of the hair occurs in most of the cases, the new hair could be of a different texture and shade temporarily.

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 stop and the hair will recover the look previous to the treatment the moment cellular pigmentation is functioning normally all over again. Unfortunately, chemotherapy hair loss cannot be prevented as there is no treatment which will guarantee that the hair will not fall out.

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