Dealing With Your Hair During And After Chemotherapy
It Happened To Me
I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2020. Before beginning chemo,
I wore my hair in a chin-length bob.
One of the many traumatic times during cancer is knowing that you would lose your hair. Many women view their hair as their crowning glory.
I tried not to think about it too much. During my entire cancer journey, I just went day by day. My oncology nurse told me that many get their hair cut short so that when their hair begins to fall out it is less dramatic.
The nurse told me that my hair would fall out after my second treatment.
I made an appointment with my hairdresser, and she cut my hair in a pixie style. Many of my friends liked it better than my bob. Over the next few days, my head was hurting. It felt like someone cut up the back of my head with a razor blade. No one warned me that it hurts when your hair falls out.
Two days after my haircut, my hair started to fall out. It was exactly 12 days after my first chemo. I was upset because I would have just shaved my head if I had known it was going to fall out so soon. I later did just that. I was lucky that I had a perfectly shaped head.
It was a mess. There was hair all over the place. On clothes, pillows, furniture, and in the sink. Anywhere I went, I left a trail of hair. It was quite daunting. I had to wear a sleep cap at night to keep my head warm.
Anytime I went out, I wore a cap or a hat. I didn’t embrace my baldness in public. I did find it much easier than having hair to deal with. I didn’t have to worry about styling or anything. Just threw on a cap and out I went.
Whenever I saw myself in the mirror, it drove home that, indeed, I did have cancer. There was no way around it. Towards the end of the treatment I lost my eyebrows and my double-row curly eyelashes. I was more troubled by that than losing the hair on my head.
Two and a half months after ending chemo, my hair was coming in baby fine. It seemed to me like it was taking forever to come in.
Six months later, I felt comfortable going out in public with my hair. It was maybe two inches long. I always had wavy hair but my hair came in curlier and I loved it.
Funny enough, after it grew quite a bit, I actually liked the style it was when it came in. It was like a shag. I kept it that way and actually let it grow down to my shoulders. I was able to flip back my sides and I loved it. A la Farrah Fawcett.
My hairstylist wanted to know if I wanted to cut it like a bob or keep the longer hair. I wanted to keep the hair longer only because of the time I was without hair or only had very short hair. I wanted to experience a luxurious mane.
However, later down the road, my hair would not curl anymore. It was still curly, but would not curl back. I was very upset.
Last week, I had my hairstylist cut my hair back into a bob.
I have now come full circle with my hair. It has been over two years since my last chemo, and my chance of recurrence is now less than the 90% I was told in the beginning.
