Woke up with hair

ditto1
ditto1 Member Posts: 660
in Head and Neck Cancer #1
going to bed BALD? Well I guess I was not prepared for todays events as my hair started coming out/ Chemo 101. So off with it, sheers in action and as I post now I look like Mr Potato Head, told TODitto she could add ears, mustache etc. On a serious note I had not heard about that much hair loss for HN, I guess its as simple as what Chemo and how the side affects hit you, I took Cisplatin and Taxotere. I know my RAD doc wanted me to do chemo 1st to reduce the tumor, and I guess who would not want more time before the MASK, I guess I just have to trust. Chemo round 1 tough, but doing better last few days. Either way just a shout out to see If any other HN had full blown hair loss. In fairness I shaved my head and face just to keep hair from being an everday issue. Still sucks.

Comments

  • phrannie51
    phrannie51 Member Posts: 4,716
    #2
    It must be the Taxotere......
    I've only gotten Cispatin, but had cut my shoulder length hair short, short, short in preparation for hair loss (the Dr. told me to get a buzz cut, but I decided to start short, and do the buzz later)....so far no hair loss except where the rads are hitting along my hair line at the back of my neck.

    The last three chemo's I have will be Cisplatin and something else, so I may still be joining the "potato head" club :)....but hair grows back, and maybe it'll be curly!!! I could live with that for sure.

    p
  • Greend
    Greend Member Posts: 678
    #3
    Beard
    I've told this story before but hell, I'm getting older and can repeat myself if I want...that's what my grandaughter told me.

    I had a full beard and one morning I woke up and my face was as smooth as a baby's butt, no hair at all on the sides of my face. The only hair was a small strand where they didn't zap because it would have hit my spine (thats what I was told). That strand reminded me of a turkey's beard. The problem is that I never did find the hair I lost. Ir wasn't in the bed, not on the floor just gone.

    Wonder if the "hair fairy" came in at night and took it.
  • longtermsurvivor
    longtermsurvivor Member Posts: 1,842 Member
    #4
    carboplatin
    lost all hair except on my arms. The loss was gradual, over four courses of chemo. My hair has been very slow to grow back, and my formerly brown hair is now salt and pepper color, and kinky where it wasnstraight. Actually, I look damn good.
  • Skiffin16
    Skiffin16 Member Posts: 8,305 Member
    #5
    longtermsurvivor said:

    carboplatin
    lost all hair except on my arms. The loss was gradual, over four courses of chemo. My hair has been very slow to grow back, and my formerly brown hair is now salt and pepper color, and kinky where it wasnstraight. Actually, I look damn good.

    Another Case...
    of us all being and reacting differently I suppose....

    I had Carboplatin seven doses over seven weeks. That was after the initial Cisplatin, Taxotere and 5FU of which I only had three doses of those.

    During Carboplatin, my hair though thin, grew back in.

    It was like going through puberty, LOL...all hair was very fine, super blonde and straight. I looked like I had troll doll hair.

    JG
  • Skiffin16
    Skiffin16 Member Posts: 8,305 Member
    #6
    YEP...
    And when you say "Full Blown Hair Loss"..., that was me.

    It came on somewhere between the beginning of the 2nd three week cycle for me. Started off feeling like an inflamed nerve, LOL... A little weird sensation of the scalp, then seeing more of it the next few days when I would wash my hair, or even standing at the sink in front of the mirror. I could rub my head and see the hair falling into the sink.

    For me it wasn't a biggie...being in the Marines for six years active, and another 10+ in the Reserves. Having pretty short hair has been a way of life for me for many years.

    I just had my barber give me the buzz cut similar to days of old.

    No Hair Buzz Cut


    G-Man...Buzz Cut with Chemo Flush

    Looking at these photos now, I can see how puffed up I was from the chemo and chemo drugs.

    Now what I totally didn't expect or anticipate was what you had asked up front, "Full Blown Hair Loss", that I wasn't prepared for.

    I lost "ALL" hair, as in absolutely eveywhere....

    But though thinned considerably at first, I did start getting hair back within a few weeks from initially losing it. Even through the remainder of chemo, then another seven weekly doses of chemo.

    Unfortuantely the first hair to return had to be those you wished to never return...LOL. Those pesky nose hairs, ear hair and long tweaky eye brow hairs.

    Now I do have about an inch on the back of my neck that never retured, as well as most hair (beard), under my jaw bone and my throat. That of course was rads induces....

    Hair today, gone tomorrow...the price we pay..., but most will grow back.

    Best,
    John
  • osmotar
    osmotar Member Posts: 1,006
    #7
    Hair today ..gone tomorrow
    Hi D1,

    I had the same drugs as skiffin, in the same time frame every 21 days. I had shoulder length hair when dx, the gal that does my hair said that it would be easier when it starts to come out to have it shorter, lessens the trauma ..well that being said I had my first all day treatment on 8-8-2011, by the end of august my hair was coming out in clumps, so when my neice arrived at the end of aug I went to have the rest of it shaved off..the best thing I ever did. I rather liked the bald look, never wore a wig, at first I would wear a ball cap...but then went without, the only hair I didn't loose was my eye lashes and eyebrows...love the fact of not having to shave my legs. My rads started Nov 1, at Xmas I was still as bald as could be...but by late Jan/early Feb it started to grow back, but then I lost the eyebrows/eyelashes go figure..well it's coming in back thicker than before, it's still short but I'm lovin the length so easy to take care of here in the AZ heat...after all it's just hair, it didn't define me. My family and I would joke about it, my 6 yr old granddaughter wanted pics..I think for show n tell, but the sweetest thing she would say to me when she would call is how is my bald headed grammie doing. Bottom line it will be ok..and yep I have to attest it doews grow back.

    Linda

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