Chemotherapy and hair loss: What to expect during treatment
Saturday, April 25th, 2009I would like to thank you for visiting and reading this article. The topic has been carefully researched and documented for your benefit.
Chemotherapy hair loss is one of the numerous effects of this cancer treatment. 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.
The variety of the drugs used in chemotherapy is incredibly high with hundreds of medicines available. Some of these will trigger chemotherapy hair loss more quickly than others, but some may not even cause such a side effect. The concentration of the drugs is relevant for chemotherapy hair loss, and while some patients will experience thinning of the hair others will go completely bald. Thus, discussing the medication that will be prescribed with the doctor and nurse is very important as they are the specialists able to inform the patient on what to expect from chemotherapy.
Hair usually starts falling out after 10-14 days from the beginning of the treatment. It may fall out quite fast, either in clumps or gradually. 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. Luckily, in most cases, chemotherapy hair loss is a temporary effect. Hair can be expected to grow again within six months to one year from the end of the procedure. 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. The changes that took place in the hair follicles during chemotherapy will be obvious in the way the hair grows back, but in time, things will get back to normal. The changes will be a first recovery sign and the hair will recover the look previous to the treatment the moment cellular pigmentation is functioning normally all over again. Unfortunately, one cannot prevent chemotherapy hair loss as none of the treatments available is completely free of such side effects.
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