coloring hair after regrowth

56crystal
56crystal Member Posts: 5
edited March 2014 in Breast Cancer #1
Has anyone had experience coloring hair after it grew back? I'm not sure I want to do it but I colored it before and when I take off my wig, if I don't find a way to make the transition gradual, It may feel like announcing my chemo. to everyone -- even people I would not like to tell. My nurse said 6 months but that is approximate. I had 4 courses of AC. Anyone try this? Heidi

Comments

  • nancys
    nancys Member Posts: 323
    #2
    Hello Heidi, My hair is sprouting up, also. I have always been a light ash blonde and always frosted my hair with blonde highlights. My sprouting hair is coming in "snow white".....I have given some thought to color also. Then on NBC news last night, it mentioned that there is some research about hair dye and CANCER...No thank you Miss Clariol, I will remain white haired. Even a slight hint of the "C" word is enough to scare me away. Maybe a temp. rinse is all we will need till we get a good amount of hair back. Crystal, we will have a "cool do" for the hot summer weather. Love to you, Nancy S.
  • jeancmici
    jeancmici Member Posts: 665 Member
    #3
    Heidi,

    I'm going to not answer your question except to say that I had gray before and suppose it will be gray after, BUT noticed you said you had 4 AC treatments. So many people here mention 4 Taxol following.

    I am set for four taxol to follow the AC ( one more to go) but , although I had one node positive (the sentinel node), my surgeon thought 4 Ac were enough and the oncologist I had for the first three treatments. My present oncologist, I think, will say do the taxol.

    May I ask if you were node-negative?

    Best wishes from Jean
  • maggie
    maggie Member Posts: 71
    #4
    HI Heidi! I'm Maggie. I finished my chemo in DEC.1999 & my hair started coming back in in Feb. AS like Nancy it come back snow white, then it started turning dark brown, almost black. My old hair was blonde or light brown. I decided that June 2000, I would hightlight that dark stuff, big mistake my hair turned every color in the book, except what I wanted. I let that grow off and I finally got brave enough last week to get it highlighted again. This time it turned out ok. Good luck if you decided to go ahead and do it now. Maggie
  • nancys
    nancys Member Posts: 323
    #5
    jeancmici said:

    Heidi,

    I'm going to not answer your question except to say that I had gray before and suppose it will be gray after, BUT noticed you said you had 4 AC treatments. So many people here mention 4 Taxol following.

    I am set for four taxol to follow the AC ( one more to go) but , although I had one node positive (the sentinel node), my surgeon thought 4 Ac were enough and the oncologist I had for the first three treatments. My present oncologist, I think, will say do the taxol.

    May I ask if you were node-negative?

    Best wishes from Jean

    Jean, Nancy here, I had 1 positive node, the sentinel node and my Onco treated me with 4 A/C and 4 Taxol, radiation to follow. I am also her-2/neu positive, which may make a difference in treatment. Tamoxifen for 5 years and started with the first chemo treatment. The Taxol was the easiest part of the treatment for me so far. My fingers and toes are a little numb from it and hope that goes away soon. I start the radiation in 3 more weeks. Good luck with whatever you decide to do. Much love, Nancy
  • jeancmici
    jeancmici Member Posts: 665 Member
    #6
    nancys said:

    Jean, Nancy here, I had 1 positive node, the sentinel node and my Onco treated me with 4 A/C and 4 Taxol, radiation to follow. I am also her-2/neu positive, which may make a difference in treatment. Tamoxifen for 5 years and started with the first chemo treatment. The Taxol was the easiest part of the treatment for me so far. My fingers and toes are a little numb from it and hope that goes away soon. I start the radiation in 3 more weeks. Good luck with whatever you decide to do. Much love, Nancy

    Hi Nancy,

    I see you caught my message. Yes, I'm still thinking whether I want to do this any longer. We are 'twins' - sentinel node +,other nodes - AND HER2/neu 3+, but I read that HER2 doesn't get any special treatment - only if the cancer metastasizes when herceptin comes into the picture.

    I continue to hear that Taxol is not that bad but its advantage was found to be in ER - women , not ER + (me 95%). Tamoxifen is more important than Taxol for us.

    I will keep you posted. By the way I am 63, childless, and took Premarin .625mg for 9 1/2 years. I am convinced that gave me cancer - my doctor suggested it to begin with but never suggested I might drop the dosage and stop it at some point.

    Thanks for your note - I'll keep in touch.
    Jean
  • cherdaetwyler
    cherdaetwyler Member Posts: 156
    #7
    jeancmici said:

    Heidi,

    I'm going to not answer your question except to say that I had gray before and suppose it will be gray after, BUT noticed you said you had 4 AC treatments. So many people here mention 4 Taxol following.

    I am set for four taxol to follow the AC ( one more to go) but , although I had one node positive (the sentinel node), my surgeon thought 4 Ac were enough and the oncologist I had for the first three treatments. My present oncologist, I think, will say do the taxol.

    May I ask if you were node-negative?

    Best wishes from Jean

    Hey Jean,
    I just want to tell you read my notes under denmother and costrochonditis above.
    If they are going to give you Taxol, locate a source of liquid glucosamine prior to starting the Taxol becuse as many of us will tell you pain relievers do not work on the Taxol pain (it is because it is such a poison causes major allergic reaction) BUT since it has been proven to increase long term survival, probably worth it if you can take it (I have bunches of allergies and many wierd reactions to stuff that they claim are not allergies and was very afraid of totally bad reaction to the Taxol, but I got through the first treatment with only major pain. But the glucosamine (at least twice the recommended doeses) is the only thing that seems to help ...even narcotic pain relievers do not touch the pain...I sat in a fog from the meds I took wanting to shriek with the pain for hours on Friday morning, with no relief at all. If anything it made it worse cause it caused extra pain as it wore off.

    Good luck. hugs, cher
  • cherdaetwyler
    cherdaetwyler Member Posts: 156
    #8
    nancys said:

    Jean, Nancy here, I had 1 positive node, the sentinel node and my Onco treated me with 4 A/C and 4 Taxol, radiation to follow. I am also her-2/neu positive, which may make a difference in treatment. Tamoxifen for 5 years and started with the first chemo treatment. The Taxol was the easiest part of the treatment for me so far. My fingers and toes are a little numb from it and hope that goes away soon. I start the radiation in 3 more weeks. Good luck with whatever you decide to do. Much love, Nancy

    Nancy, I am on same treatment schedule as you. Wish I WAS ONLY a LITTLE NUMB,
    But each of us reacts in own way and level. Actually my fingertips and toes, and end of tongue, and nose, are numb. It is just all the rest inbetween.

    The her-2/nue positive (hope spelled that right cause I still cant see this) only means that Herceptin will work on this but unless they find a metastasis site they will not use that now but will save it for a later treatment. (I had 5 positive on LEft, and 7 positive on right, with no further spread discovered except that the pathologist says there are cancer cells in all the fatty tissue under my arms...YUCK!

    glad you are doing so well with the stuff...I just have to keep fighting through this all.
    hugs, cher
  • cherdaetwyler
    cherdaetwyler Member Posts: 156
    #9
    Heidi,
    There is a lot of controversy regarding dying ahir and cancer. YOu might want to consider sone of the old fashioned natural things such as camomile, or any of the pale yellow daisies, in a tea which give a blond look to gray hair.

    I was pretty thoroughly gray before my hair fell out (even got a light grey wig which a lot of people have thought is my own hair (which makes me crazy cause I feel so frumpy in the style it is, cause I can't make it unpuffy) But wild and crazy that I am I just might do a red henna rinse on my hair whne it grows back just to celebrate.

    Sorry if my goofy suggestions don't help.

    hugs and glad you hair will be returning soon. (I have 3 more taxol to get out of the way before mine can start returning (the A/C did not take it all out so still have wisps over the top with a Friar tuck look around the edges,.....so glamorous!!!
    hugs cher
  • 56crystal
    56crystal Member Posts: 5
    #10
    jeancmici said:

    Heidi,

    I'm going to not answer your question except to say that I had gray before and suppose it will be gray after, BUT noticed you said you had 4 AC treatments. So many people here mention 4 Taxol following.

    I am set for four taxol to follow the AC ( one more to go) but , although I had one node positive (the sentinel node), my surgeon thought 4 Ac were enough and the oncologist I had for the first three treatments. My present oncologist, I think, will say do the taxol.

    May I ask if you were node-negative?

    Best wishes from Jean

    Dear Jean, I had one node that was positive. The recommendations used to be for 4 AC followed by 2 Taxol. The current NIH consensus is that Taxol does not provide any proven benefit in people with small tumors and less than 3 nodes (but it may depend on size of tumor and other features so I can't say whether your oncologist would be right or wrong about you.) I sought a second opinion from two different places. I have very low white counts with AC and, despite Neupogen, they took time to recover so I am hapy to avoid Taxol. There are risks as well as potential benefits. Heidi
  • 56crystal
    56crystal Member Posts: 5
    #11
    cherdaetwyler said:

    Heidi,
    There is a lot of controversy regarding dying ahir and cancer. YOu might want to consider sone of the old fashioned natural things such as camomile, or any of the pale yellow daisies, in a tea which give a blond look to gray hair.

    I was pretty thoroughly gray before my hair fell out (even got a light grey wig which a lot of people have thought is my own hair (which makes me crazy cause I feel so frumpy in the style it is, cause I can't make it unpuffy) But wild and crazy that I am I just might do a red henna rinse on my hair whne it grows back just to celebrate.

    Sorry if my goofy suggestions don't help.

    hugs and glad you hair will be returning soon. (I have 3 more taxol to get out of the way before mine can start returning (the A/C did not take it all out so still have wisps over the top with a Friar tuck look around the edges,.....so glamorous!!!
    hugs cher

    Dear cher, Thanks for the ideas. Camomile sounds good. I suppose you get these things in the health good stores. If you have any specifics, I'd appreciate them. Your suggestions are great. Good luck with your taxol. Heidi
  • cherdaetwyler
    cherdaetwyler Member Posts: 156
    #12
    56crystal said:

    Dear cher, Thanks for the ideas. Camomile sounds good. I suppose you get these things in the health good stores. If you have any specifics, I'd appreciate them. Your suggestions are great. Good luck with your taxol. Heidi

    One of my herb books says just steep chamomile for a couple hours to get a really strong brew...even after an hour I still have only pale green tea. Then put it on and let it soak into your hair for a while. Rinse. Now my one friend who does this says she isn't sure if it will work to color while hair blonde because it makes her blonde hair a lighter shade of blonde.

    The other thing is I tried it on a swatch of nearly white hair that I had cut off my long hair before chemo, and the camomile tea gave it a greenish-yellow cast. That might happen too, but it should wash out very easily, or

    also calendula blossoms make a hair color, and since you can eat them in salads I don't think they would hurt your hair...However the swatch I tried was more of a reddish blone than true blonde, and it was a very pale yellow calendula. Ano5ther name for calendula that you sometimes find the blossoms listed under in the produce section of trendy food stores is POT Marigold...not at all like the regular marigolds most people put in their yards...this has a sort of oval smooth leaf, and the yellow color seems to be mostly in the flowers.

    By the way, I am not tossing my sample swatches that I dyed into the garbage, I am working them into a basket I am making from sea grass, linen thread, and a small amount of sweet grass, and now the long hair.

    Yeah I know I am wierd, but sometimes wierd keeps me sane through all of this.
    hugs, cher
  • cekramer
    cekramer Member Posts: 33
    #13
    jeancmici said:

    Heidi,

    I'm going to not answer your question except to say that I had gray before and suppose it will be gray after, BUT noticed you said you had 4 AC treatments. So many people here mention 4 Taxol following.

    I am set for four taxol to follow the AC ( one more to go) but , although I had one node positive (the sentinel node), my surgeon thought 4 Ac were enough and the oncologist I had for the first three treatments. My present oncologist, I think, will say do the taxol.

    May I ask if you were node-negative?

    Best wishes from Jean

    Jean,

    Excuse me for butting in but I had a client who was an oncologist and he highly recommended Taxol for me after AC. I had one positive node and am very young, 34. It is a STANDARD at Sloan-Kettering in NYC so I didn't argue with him. He is also affiliated with MD Anderson in Texas, the best cancer treatment facility in the country. Don't know if this is different for older women, ask your onco., he is the expert, not your surgeon. Good luck.

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