#7 CHEMO HAIR LOSS-HAIR TRANSFORMATION

Welcome back to Faith Walk with Debbie!  I will share about my hair transformation. 

The thought of my hair falling out was overwhelming.  I had worn long hair all of my adult life.  By the time chemotherapy started, my hair was down the middle of my back.  My hair had begun graying around the forehead.  However, the bottom of my hair still had its amber color. 

I will never forget how I felt the first time I pulled the hair pick through my hair and a wad of hair was left in the comb.

I had seen movies showing cancer patients combing their hair and big amounts of hair came out when they combed through it.  I was amazed that about day ten after I had started chemotherapy my hair began to fall out. 

One day in particular I could not believe how much came out.   I placed the hair on the side of the bathtub so I could keep track of how much fell out that day.

My daughter lives about 3 ½ hours away.  She decided to come for a visit.  While she was here, she offered to cut my hair.  I wanted to keep my ponytail as a memory of how long my hair had gotten and to remember the color also.

I was really impressed with how she cut my hair so I could save my ponytail. 

Then she continued to cut my hair into a nice styled haircut.  I actually wore the short haircut for about a week.  Then, it began to really fall out.

I was really embarrassed when most of my hair fell out and just straggles of hair were left on my scalp.  After a while, I decided to cut the stragglers closer to my scalp.  I chose not to shave it off because I had been told that when other people shaved their head, it really caused irritation.

This picture shows my hair thinned. More eventually fell out. In addition it shows some of the chemo red rash all over my scalp.

In preparation for me to lose my hair, I had purchased multiple head coverings.  I tried to get many different styles and colors.  I felt if I could color coordinate my head coverings with my clothes that it would help me feel better about myself.  Here is a picture of head coverings I purchased.

This is an example of one of my head coverings where I tried to color coordinate with my clothes.

I shared in a previous post that my insurance reimbursed me for my first wig that cost over $500.  That is the wig.

I found that I could purchase inexpensive wigs through paulyoung.com.  They also sent me catalogs with lots of special offers.  I ended up with three additional wigs. My husband purchased the long one for my birthday in hopes it would make me feel more normal with long hair.

The blond one on the far right I got in order to have some fun with a different color.

The one on the left my daughter chose that style and co-workers really liked it so I bought it as my fourth wig.

My hair started to grow back sometime during October 2020 which was about four months after chemotherapy started and two months after the harsh chemotherapy ended.  As it grew in, the texture seemed fuller and wavier.  I had been told it probably would grow in curly.  I liked the change.  From what I read, about six months after chemotherapy stops the texture will return closer to normal.  We will see what happens in the future! As I’m creating this post it’s eight months after I started to lose my hair.  It is now approximately one to one and a half inches long. 

A couple months ago, I got tired of wearing head coverings and some days I just didn’t feel like wearing a wig.  So I began wearing baseball caps sometimes when I was not working. 

It looked OK with the hair sticking out beyond the baseball cap.  However, I do not think the sides were long enough to make a good-looking hair style.  I probably will not be comfortable wearing my hair without some type of cover until it gets about three inches longer. 

So even though losing my hair was emotionally difficult, I made the best of it with changing up the style and color of what I wore on my head.  My hair thinned or fell completely out all over my body except my eye brows.  There were a couple good things about it all.  It didn’t take long to wash my hair and there was no need to use a blow dryer.  I went months without shaving which was a blessing too. 

Thank you for coming on this journey with me.

I want to leave you with scriptural encouragement.  1 Peter 5:7 (NLT) “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.”  So even though losing my hair was difficult.  All I could do was give the situation to God.  I knew he cared.  As a result, He helped me make the best of a difficult situation.

I hope you will continue with me on this journey.  Next time, I will share about my Heart Scare.  While I was in the process of sixteen chemotherapies another challenge arose and really scared me.  Join me next time to learn about those details.