The Hair Process During and After Chemo

I'm posting some pictures of the hair "process" during chemo and afterward. I want to have some "points of reference" if someone after me is diagnosed with breast cancer and will ask when her hair will fall out, when it will grow back, how quickly it will grow, etc. I regret that I didn't take a photo of my actual hair cut (buzz cut) the day that my hair was falling out too much to hang onto it.


I'll start posting pictures now and will continue over the coming months. I'll start with what I looked like before chemo, after my first (transition) cut, my difficult second transition cut (to 2" long), my bald head, the intitial regrowth and three months after the last chemo...





Mother's Day morning (no make-up!) I'd just had my second surgery--- breast tissue excission and lymph nodes (13) dissection---and had been hospitalized for a few days. May 2010  ***Picture Removed By Blogger***




























With my childhood best friend Jennifer---following an appointment with the surgeon. This picture shows my first "transition" haircut that would help me gradually get used to short hair and losing my hair all-together. May (?) June (?) 2010



















This is just after I had started to lose clumps of hair and had to make the painful decision to go to a 2" haircut--- I made it not even two full days with this cut before having to have my head shaved. This was a very hard time during my cancer experience. (I HATED the haircut!) My hair started to fall out in strands at about the 16th day following the first chemotherapy treatment (one expects it to happen at about two weeks after). Each day, more and more hair fell out--- first strands, then clumps of strands, and finally I was seeing a wide part on top of my head and hair patches missing on the back of my neck. That's when I knew it was time for my hair to be shaved off. It was a devistating process---from the time the first strands fell out until I had it removed all together. I cried every day, and several times per day, and especially when I showered and handfuls of hair would come out. There's a sense of relief once it's overwith---gone. My daughter (age 20 at the time) cut my hair off for me in the privacy of our home.




This was taken in mid-September 2010---about four or five weeks after my final chemotherapy treatment (Aug. 4, 2010). There were fine, fuzzy "sprigs" of hair cropping up.
















November 5, 2010
Three months after the final chemotherapy infusion. My hair is very soft and fine. It finally covers my entire scalp. I didn't have significant hair re-growth until about six weeks following that last chemo. At that time, my hair "took off"--- my eyebrows filled in thicker than before I had cancer, my eyelashes came back, and my scalp seemed to revive. :-)

Today, I did something that would push me to accept my "new look" (short, short and slow growing hair). I went out in public "as is". I'd been hiding under scarves, cute hats and, on occasion, a wig-- for months. There had to be a first step, and today was the day.
I'd done the same thing once my hair had been shaved. I put on a scarf and forced myself to go to Walmart with it on. I now remember how I felt everyone was staring at me. Ha! But, making myself go out like that helped sooo much. About a week after going around with scarves and cute hats I became very, very comfortable with that look. MORE so than with wearing my wig. I've worn my wig a handful of times---I could probably count the days on one hand.


*Side note: I ALWAYS washed and conditioned my scalp--even when I didn't have hair. Keeping that routine gave me a sense of hope that my hair would come back, that the baldness was just a season, and it was good for my head. :-)