Beard/hair

Hair hair!
I'm roughly 15 months out from end of radiation/chemo for stage 4 base of tongue SCC with mets to lymph nodes on both sides. They gave me the maximum dosage of radiation. My doc warned me that hair lost to chemo would come back, and hair lost to rads won't. I got mixed results.

I have no hairs on my upper lip or chin (you know, those pesky mustache and chin hairs that plague women...). I have NO NOSE HAIR eeeeeek! The short hairs that formerly grew on the nape of my neck have never come back. On a more positive note, the hair lost from the back of my head, from the nape area up to about the tops of my ears, has all grown back. That hair was in the radiation field and I feared it was gone for good.

Chemo never took all my hair. I shed out about half of it, and stayed with the same thin, dry, scruffy hair all through treatment. Some two or three months out from chemo, all the old dead stuff shed out as new hair grew in. My hair is super curly now. I get mocked about my 'elf hair' now, but that's okay. Beats the alternative.

Best wishes for success with the beard. Some folks here did get their beards back; women included...

Deb

I've just finished radiation
I've just finished radiation and losing my beard was tough for me too. I still have my moustache and a "soul patch" on my chin. My doctor said that the beard returns for about 1/4 of people, and another group it comes back patchy. I'd hoped for a goatee, but not sure I'm even going to get that. I also lost some hair near my neckline, which will supposedly come back but none on my head.

Hair Today
The bottom inch or so of the hair on my neck is just fuzzy now.

Also, most of the beard came back above the jaw line. Hardly any back below other than just under my chin...

Works for me, as I've never been a beard man. But I've had a close trimmed mustache for a very long time, and it came back.

John

Hondo said:

fuzzy stuff
Do you mean peach fuzz? Sorry just brought back some old memories.

After my second radiation all I can do is grow a mustache and goatees, no hair will grow on the side of my face anymore. I was very lucky as the hair on the back of my head about 3 or 4 inch about the hair line is growing again and the doc said it will not come back; Fooled him.

Hondo

Fuzzy Stuff..
Hmmmm....that too...

joshhen said:

hair after radiation
i am 4 months post radiation and my eyebrows and half mt beard are still gone it is suppose to start comming back after 6 months for just radiation but i still have none

no shaving
I had a fairly heavy beard and lost all of it, except my upper lip. I am 17 months post treatment and I shave my upper lip daily, but my face about once a week. Kind of a nice thing not to have to shave every morning. Tell your husband, I had a mustache for 20 years and I now look funny with one. My wife loves me too, without the facial hair...Move on and enjoy the youthful new "look".
Steve

Greend said:

Hair
I had to smile. I remember when I had to start treatments I got pissed and determined that I would never let cancer take my hair so I shaved my head. Smart me didn't think about my full beard. One morning I woke up and my face was as smooth as a baby's behind and I could not find a single hair in my bed. It was as though someone vacuumed my face during the night. All I had was a scraggly section on the tip of my chin (I called it a turkey beard) where the rads had not hit. Now to answer your question. It took me years to ever start growing facial hair again. Sorry...But at least he is alive to complain about no beard :>)

Denny

Whiskers
Lost my moustache early in treatment, but was able to get a new one several months after tx. As for beard areas, 29-months after tx I still couldn't grow one on the left side of my face, as I could count on one hand the whiskers on my left jaw, and haven't shaved either side of my neck since 2/09. Left side of my face has far fewer whiskers than the right side, as is also the case with the moustache. Had a beard for years when younger, but not an option anymore. Goatee isn't even possible. But keep in mind everyone is different.

kcass

olybee said:

THANKS
to all you guys who responded. Bob says it's pretty sad when his boys have beards and he doesn't. Now mind you, I had to remind him that both of "his boys" are now in college, so maybe he has to get past considering them boys. I know lots of women who have laser hair removal, and I never thought about that being like radiation but much gentler. Yikes!
Thanks again, guys, for all the responses. It gives Bob hope that he says maybe in a year he'll be cancer free and have his beard back. I'm just focusing on the cancer free part!

a baby's butt
My wife used to enjoy having my whole face as soft and hairless as a baby's butt. She would even call over other women and have them feel it... not that I minded, of course. I felt like Joe Namath. I lost everything below my eyelids and above the shoulders, including nose and ear hair.

Now that I am nine months out of rads I have what could almost be a goatee if I let it go long enough. Still nothing but a hair here or there below the chin that I clean up every week or two. And very scraggly around the neck scar. A couple of years go I shaved off the moustache I had had for 30 years - the kids had never seen me without one - because it has gone patchy white. Now I'm not sure it would come back anyway.

The hair on the back is also regrowing and I don't have to leave it long to cover.

Like others, the Cisplatin didn't take away all the head hair but it did thin it out considerably. Now it is coming back well.

All in all, it's a price I gladly pay. Doug

scottishbrenda said:

beard hair growth
Hello
My husband Jim had a full beard for all of our married life 37 years. He had radiation and had to shave it off completely. My daughter said Dad has lost a stone already! he looked so diffferent. The hair grew back about 8 weeks later and he has a nice little goatee ( I always wanted him to have this anyway!) the hair is growing on the side of his face but not enough for a full beard. The haor does grow back, honest!

Dear Olybee
I smiled while reading your post. OF COURSE, we are so happy that they are recovering from this nasty cancer, but my husband, like yours, had a full beard for 40 plus years and it has been an adjustment. He finished treatment at the beginning of June and almost everyday says, "I think my beard is coming back." Yes dear... He actually looks younger without it because it was completely white. It is nice to see that dimple in his chin again too. Reading the responses here, maybe they will get some back. In the meantime, it's smooth as a baby's bottom. Love it!