do you loose your hair during radiation trearment?

janie560
janie560 Member Posts: 42
in Breast Cancer #1
Do u loose your hair in radiation treatment?

Comments

  • ender
    ender Member Posts: 167
    #2
    No, not at all :) only side
    No, not at all :) only side effects I know about are fatigue and local skin reactions. I just finished radiation.
  • dbhadra
    dbhadra Member Posts: 344 Member
    #3
    ender said:

    No, not at all :) only side
    No, not at all :) only side effects I know about are fatigue and local skin reactions. I just finished radiation.

    no, if you are getting radiation
    to your breast area you would not lose your hair.

    Laura
  • Rague
    Rague Member Posts: 3,653 Member
    #4
    Not normally
    Not normally do you loose hair if all you're doing is rads. I did meet one lady whose hair had thinned a lot while on rads but it was probably due to starting tamoxifen during that time. A bit over a year ago I was giving rides for a gentleman to his rads appt for brain cancer and he never lost his hair and he was on an oral chemo also but I don't remember which one.

    Susan
  • mjjones453
    mjjones453 Member Posts: 155
    #5
    Rague said:

    Not normally
    Not normally do you loose hair if all you're doing is rads. I did meet one lady whose hair had thinned a lot while on rads but it was probably due to starting tamoxifen during that time. A bit over a year ago I was giving rides for a gentleman to his rads appt for brain cancer and he never lost his hair and he was on an oral chemo also but I don't remember which one.

    Susan

    just my armpit
    Funny, I love it. I remember freaking out because in the first few treatments, BO was very bad, and I wasn't supposed to use Deoderant, except Deoderant without Alluminum in it. After my radiation, my underarm hair hasn't grown back, it has been a year and a half. I still shave just in case, but not often.
    Mary
  • mamolady
    mamolady Member Posts: 796 Member
    #6
    arm pit hair
    I had radiation to my arm pit area for the lymph nodes. The area only include the bottom 2/3s of the hair area. So the bottom 2/3s of my armpit is hair less! Crazy huh?

    Cindy

    I did ask them to include the other area once I saw the hair loss but they thought I was joking......
  • Mitzi333
    Mitzi333 Member Posts: 511 Member
    #7
    mamolady said:

    arm pit hair
    I had radiation to my arm pit area for the lymph nodes. The area only include the bottom 2/3s of the hair area. So the bottom 2/3s of my armpit is hair less! Crazy huh?

    Cindy

    I did ask them to include the other area once I saw the hair loss but they thought I was joking......

    Interesting... I ask that very question today
    Just as all of replied the doc says no, only in the armpit area. Otherwise, no hair loss on the head. Yippeeeee!!! I'm halfway through rad and so far, so good!!!

    Hugs~
    Mitzi ;0)
  • SIROD
    SIROD Member Posts: 2,194 Member
    #8
    Local vs Systemic
    Radiation like surgery is a local treatment. Therefore with radiation, you loose your hair only in the area that radiation is given.

    Chemotherapy and hormonal therapy is a systemic treatment. Your whole body feels the side effects from drugs being taken or given.

    Best,

    Doris
  • nkptrsn
    nkptrsn Member Posts: 1
    #9
    loosing hair during radiation
    hi, janie560. during my radiation treatments, my hair actually started growing faster. u just have to get u a good shampoo/conditioner of your preference. castor oil, shea butter, or vitamin e oil will helps with the growth. i do use nioxin shampoo/conditioner, along with use pantene s/c. i apply the castor oil hot oil treatment or i will use the castor oil hair and scalp treatment.
  • jerseygirl231
    jerseygirl231 Member Posts: 178
    #10
    nkptrsn said:

    loosing hair during radiation
    hi, janie560. during my radiation treatments, my hair actually started growing faster. u just have to get u a good shampoo/conditioner of your preference. castor oil, shea butter, or vitamin e oil will helps with the growth. i do use nioxin shampoo/conditioner, along with use pantene s/c. i apply the castor oil hot oil treatment or i will use the castor oil hair and scalp treatment.

    I Kept My hair
    I did not lose any expect for the arm pit . I found shea butter works well but everyone is different
  • disneyfan2008
    disneyfan2008 Member Posts: 6,583 Member
    #11
    I have very thick hair and
    I have very thick hair and Shed all the time-but with radiation no differnt.
  • TraciInLA
    TraciInLA Member Posts: 1,994 Member
    #12
    mamolady said:

    arm pit hair
    I had radiation to my arm pit area for the lymph nodes. The area only include the bottom 2/3s of the hair area. So the bottom 2/3s of my armpit is hair less! Crazy huh?

    Cindy

    I did ask them to include the other area once I saw the hair loss but they thought I was joking......

    Same as mamolady
    My treatment field didn't include the entire armpit area, just the bottom 1/3 or so (the exact size and location of the treatment area differs for each of us). So I lost the bottom 1/3 of my underarm hair -- almost 2 years later, it hasn't grown back, so I'm assuming it's gone for good, which is fine by me!

    Traci
  • jendrey
    jendrey Member Posts: 377
    #13
    disneyfan2008 said:

    I have very thick hair and
    I have very thick hair and Shed all the time-but with radiation no differnt.

    no armpit hair..had I only known! =]
    Darn! =) no hair loss of any kind from radiation treatment

    (((Hugs)))

Discussion Boards