Chemotherapy And Hair Loss – LR
One of the most frequent side effect of cancer treatments is chemotherapy hair loss. What is the reason why hair loss occurs during chemotherapy? The medication used in chemotherapy is extremely powerful and it destroys all the developing cancer cells, although they affect other body parts too. These medicines also attack other cells in the body that have a rapid growth; among these, the cells in the hair roots, as well.
The effects of chemotherapy on hair are not limited only to the scalp as the procedure affects the hair on the body, too. Thus, patients will experience the loss of eyebrows, eyelashes, pubic and armpit hair.
The variety of the drugs used in chemotherapy is incredibly high with hundreds of medicines available. Among these, obviously some are more likely to cause chemotherapy hair loss than others. The concentration of the drugs is another aspect to consider when hair loss is under discussion, as hair loss ranges from thinning to complete baldness. Thus, discussing the medication that will be prescribed with the doctor and nurse is very important as they are the specialists able to inform the patient on what to expect from chemotherapy.
In most cases you’ll start losing hair within ten or fourteen days after you start chemotherapy. It may fall out quite fast, either in clumps or gradually. Chemotherapy hair loss remains a problem throughout the entire period of the treatment and a month afterwards. Half of the hair can fall out before this is noticed by people around. Fortunately, in the majority of cases, chemotherapy hair loss is a temporary effect. Hair will probably grow back within six months to one year after the cessation of the treatment. The new hair could have a slightly different shade of color, with the mention that even the texture could be altered too.
The hair recovery period after chemotorapy is six weeks on the average, and the growth rate will be somewhere around a quarter inch per month. When the hair starts growing back again, it might be a little different from the hair that was lost because of therapy. The color and texture alteration will be a first recovery sign and the hair will become what it used to be before the treatment the moment cellular pigmentation is functioning normally all over again. Unfortunately, chemotherapy hair loss cannot be prevented as none of the treatments available is completely free of such side effects.
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