How Long After Treatment Began Did You Lose Your Hair?
Experience was in 1975 as a RN watching a child who was on chemotherapy.
Did You Lose It Gradually or Very Quickly?
There was no hair loss.
What Was Your First Reaction When You Noticed the Loss?
In Outpatient Dept. the mother brought an elastic band that she put around the hairline of her son before chemotherapy was started. The MD approved it. It prevented the blood from carrying the medication to the hair roots during IV infusion. Seemed to work as he had plenty of hair.
Did You Choose to Wear a Head Covering or Not?
Suggest that this be tried. It cannot be so tight as to deprive the cells from nourishment and oxygen, but enough to reduce the flow and concentration of the chemo medicine to hair roots. Do not recall how long after infusion before she took the band off, but he had had several treatments with no hair loss.
How Did Losing Your Hair Affect Your Everyday Life?
Not an issue here. This was very beneficial to a child and would be for an adult. Why it is not used or recommended now has always perplexed me. It seems pretty obvious that the initial influx of the chemo into the blood stream has the greatest impact. That which continues to circulate does not seem as damaging to the hair root.
Advice
- Again, check with your chemo doctor to see if he will allow you to try this. Never heard of cancer of the skin on the head, so it does not seem it would be harmful. It reduces to a great degree the amount of medication that causes hair loss during treatments.
