Chemo with radiation/ Did your hair fall out?

I'm just getting ready to begin treatment and I know it sounds vain (in the oveall picture) but did most of you lose your hair?  I never read about that in the side effects for HNC treatment.  

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Comments

  • phrannie51
    phrannie51 Member Posts: 4,716
    My Oncologist told me

    I might as well cut my hair short cuz I'd be losing it....well, I didn't lose any with Cisplatin....and only a little with 5FU....aw, but it gave me the opportunity to see if I liked my hair short...and I do!! Laughing  Radiation will take a swath of hair about 1 1/2 inches to 2 inches off the back of your head at the nape....but mine has almost fully come back.  That's the only place I had any real hair loss....Some ofthe guys lost their beards....

    p

  • KTeacher
    KTeacher Member Posts: 1,103 Member
    Yes

    bits.   It depends where the radiation enters and exits.  1st time I lost about 1 1/2 along nape of neck weeks after treatment had ended.  Last time it came out on the side by the ear, combover!  It does come back.

  • fishmanpa
    fishmanpa Member Posts: 1,227 Member
    Hair Loss

    Hi Donna B,

    I know, I know... look at my pic and I'm bald ~lol~ I was that way BEFORE chemo and rads. It depends on the chemo drug(s) used but I didn't lose any "other" hair due to Cisplatin. However, the rads stopped my beard from growing which I don't think you have to worry about ;) Some lost a strip of hair on the back of their necks from the radiation. 

    Positive thoughts and prayers

    "T"

     

  • osmotar
    osmotar Member Posts: 1,006
    Loss

    I lost all my hair except eyelashes and eyebrows with chemo, the eyelasheseyebrows were gone durIng radiation. it all started to come back as fuzz maybe 3-4 months after all treament completed - Dec 2011..19 months later it's all back....I never minded the bald look. 

    Linda

  • cureitall66
    cureitall66 Member Posts: 913
    No major hair loss...

    My loved one did not lose much to speak of....just the nape area and he is now 9 months from when treatment ended and it's almost filled back in. He had Carboplatin & Placlitaxel as his Chemo. Dr's told him ahead of time he would most likely not lose his hair from the chemo, he would lose it from the radiation that hit that specific area.

    You will do fine and the hair will most likely not be lost.

    ~C

  • peggylulu
    peggylulu Member Posts: 375
    Hair !

    I did not have Chemo , and I did lose a thin strip on the back of my neck . It did however thin out a lot after treatments , I think due to not eating enough Protien my PCP thinks it may have been due to stress . Whaterever it was I'm not losing it near as much now that I'm ten months out of tx. Like they say on here we are all different so good luck on not losing it .

    Peggy

  • donfoo
    donfoo Member Posts: 1,773 Member
    lost most hair

    Hi,

    During induction chemo, triple coctail, Taxotere, Cisplatin, and 5FU, I lost all my facial and scalp hair and thinned all the rest from arms, legs, and privvy.  Even the eyebrows got thin but enough there to not get any severe rubbernecking, at least not that i noticed.

    It all came back in a few months, except it seems less abundant which may be a case of me just noticing that with 60 around the corner, hair does thin out. LOL

  • CivilMatt
    CivilMatt Member Posts: 4,724 Member
    hair popped out and ran away

    Donna,

    Vanity goes out the window or is put on hold for a while as you do the dance.  Your hair is only a part, be it visible part.

    I was part of the Erbitux crowd, which has a side effect of making hair grow (eye lashes, eye brows, belly hair).  Now the radiation had me joining the no nape hair club and still today I have 99.9% fewer whiskers on my neck.

    Good luck, you will do great.

    Matt

  • Skiffin16
    Skiffin16 Member Posts: 8,305 Member
    Nothing But A Thing...

    Like Don, and Linda... I too had Cisplatin, Taxotere and 5FU, then Carboplatin as a kicker...

    I lost all hair, everywhere, when it came back I swear it was like going through puberty, LOL... My head hair started coming back like a troll doll back in the 60 - 70's... Fine white and straight...

    I even lost my toe nails, all of those, and most fingernails were so britlle that when I'd cut them, one clip and the entire end would come off.

    Again, like Don, it all came back...

     

    Well, let me clarify, all came back other than the areas hit by rads...

    I have about an inch on the nape of my neck that is pretty mucg bare, or fuzzy at best. My beard from the jawline down is pretty much gone, not a problemn there..., now I only have to shave about once a week...

    Those old pesky grair, long hairs that grow in all of the places you'd rather them not.... Those suckers were some of the first to come back too...

    My advice... it's only hair, more than likely it's going to grow back... If it didn't..., at least you'd be alive to tell your side of the story...

     

    My "nurses" taking care of me.. during my no hair stage,,,.

     

    JG

    Best,

    John

  • phrannie51
    phrannie51 Member Posts: 4,716
    After sitting in the infusion

    room everyday, I got so I liked the bald look....I'm not kidding here.  The ladies...when their hair was growing in....all had these cute little caps of hair, and to me, they all looked very chic and cute. 

    p

  • yensid683
    yensid683 Member Posts: 349
    Induction chemo

    Is what lost me my hair for the most part, (taxol, cisplatin and 5FU) early May had me faily smooth, but I never lost eyelashes or eyebrows.  It started to grow back in late July, though I did lose a swath around my neck, roughly from the jaw line down.  Makes shaving in the morning easier.  Here it is more than a year later and unless you really know where to look, it is not noticeable.  Some of the hair on the back of my neck has started to come back, but not much to speak of....

  • longtermsurvivor
    longtermsurvivor Member Posts: 1,842 Member
    I had about two hairs left

    on my entire body, lol.  Lost eyebrows, eyelashes, everything. Taxotere and carboplatin.  Most of it grew back, but my eyebrows are much thinner than they were.  I got that fine black hair all over my face with the erbitux as well, but it came out in a handful of months.  Now, radiation was different, of course I[ve been zapped twice.  I  probably have 200 beard/mustache hairs left, not more than that.  And I lost a band of hair around the back of my head that never came back.   A small price to pay.

  • Ladylacy
    Ladylacy Member Posts: 773 Member
    Hair

    My husband's first radiation and chemo (cisplatin) he didn't lose any hair.  Thinner out some but at his age normal.  Second round of radiation and chemo (carboplatin) he did not lose any hair.  Now I know when my sister underwent radiation and chemo for breast cancer, she lost all her hair, so did my Aunt when she undewent radiation and chemo for esophageal cancer.

    Sharon

  • debbiejeanne
    debbiejeanne Member Posts: 3,102 Member
    Skiffin16 said:

    Nothing But A Thing...

    Like Don, and Linda... I too had Cisplatin, Taxotere and 5FU, then Carboplatin as a kicker...

    I lost all hair, everywhere, when it came back I swear it was like going through puberty, LOL... My head hair started coming back like a troll doll back in the 60 - 70's... Fine white and straight...

    I even lost my toe nails, all of those, and most fingernails were so britlle that when I'd cut them, one clip and the entire end would come off.

    Again, like Don, it all came back...

     

    Well, let me clarify, all came back other than the areas hit by rads...

    I have about an inch on the nape of my neck that is pretty mucg bare, or fuzzy at best. My beard from the jawline down is pretty much gone, not a problemn there..., now I only have to shave about once a week...

    Those old pesky grair, long hairs that grow in all of the places you'd rather them not.... Those suckers were some of the first to come back too...

    My advice... it's only hair, more than likely it's going to grow back... If it didn't..., at least you'd be alive to tell your side of the story...

     

    My "nurses" taking care of me.. during my no hair stage,,,.

     

    JG

    Best,

    John

    that is a great pic!  i think

    that is a great pic!  i think they love you...lol.

    dj

  • Crazymom
    Crazymom Member Posts: 339 Member
    last hair

    I lost all of mine.  It depends what kind of chemo you have.  Some cause hair loss and some do not.  Ann

  • Roar
    Roar Member Posts: 269 Member
    only a little in the back

    i had citspatin - didnt lose any hair from that - however i did lose some hair from the upper neck area on the back of my head. i also didnt have to shave for a long time. All hair has now returned excpt under my chin where i use to shave

  • nick770
    nick770 Member Posts: 195
    Roar said:

    only a little in the back

    i had citspatin - didnt lose any hair from that - however i did lose some hair from the upper neck area on the back of my head. i also didnt have to shave for a long time. All hair has now returned excpt under my chin where i use to shave

    cisplatin and radiation i

    cisplatin and radiation i only lost a small strip on the back of my head, 

    when my cancer metastisiesd  Taxotere,   and 5FU took all of my hair and threw me into radiation reall  Cry

  • CherieLW
    CherieLW Member Posts: 472
    My dad went through trtmnts

    My dad went through trtmnts and his hair did thin quite a bit. He also lost his signature tashe'.

  • hwt
    hwt Member Posts: 2,328 Member
    CherieLW said:

    My dad went through trtmnts

    My dad went through trtmnts and his hair did thin quite a bit. He also lost his signature tashe'.

    Hair loss

    I had rads and cisplatin...after tx completed, I lost 2-3 inches at nap of neck from the rads which has grown back.. The rest did seem to thin a bit. By the time it got to losing hair, it really didn't matter in the scheme of things.

  • hlrowe
    hlrowe Member Posts: 80
    Started to shed like my black lab

    I only had 6 cisplatin treatments and I did start to shed quite a bit. Still had plenty of hair. It stopped about 3 mo after treatment as I recall?