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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. There are normal body cells with a rapid growth rate, and they are not cancer; the cells in the digestive tract and the hair follicles are the main examples here. The effects of chemotherapy on hair are not limited only to the scalp as the procedure affects the hair on the body, too. Unfortunately, eyelashes, eyebrows, armpit and pubic hair and other body hair may also fall out.
The variety of the drugs used in chemotherapy is incredibly high with hundreds of medicines available. Some of these will trigger chemotherapy hair loss more quickly than others, but some may not even cause such a side effect. The concentration of the drugs is relevant for chemotherapy hair loss, and while some patients will experience thinning of the hair others will go completely bald. 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.
Hair usually starts falling out after 10-14 days from the beginning of the treatment. It may fall out quite fast, either in clumps or gradually. Hair loss usually continues throughout the treatment and even one month after it. Half of the hair can fall out before this is noticed by people around. Luckily, in most cases, chemotherapy hair loss is a temporary effect. Hair can be expected to grow again within six months to one year from the end of the procedure. Although the regrowth of the hair occurs in most of the cases, the new hair could be of a different texture and shade temporarily.
The hair recovery period after chemotorapy is six weeks on the average, and generally, the hair grows at a rate of about a quarter inch each month. The changes that took place in the hair follicles during chemotherapy will be obvious in the way the hair grows back, but in time, things will get back to normal. The color and texture alteration will be a first recovery sign and the hair will recover the look previous to 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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