(This post is NOT for the faint of heart \u2013 apologies is this is TMI (too much information) for some \u2013 you cannot say you weren\u2019t warned)<\/p>\n
Chemo. It kills hair dead \u2013 yet this morning I had to shave the annoying hair that continues to grow on my legs. Oh how I will NOT miss shaving my legs!\u00a0 Thing is, for a time in my past I used to get a Brazilian \u2013 and I maintained that level of \u201ccleanliness\u201d so to speak, for over a year (though not anytime recently).\u00a0 Now \u2013 with the impending doom of hair falling out in clumps, leaving me with spotty patches on my nether regions or on my head as the case may be -as my treatment continues, I find myself wanting to take charge of this whole transformation.<\/p>\n
Now \u2013 some folks take charge by just shaving the hair on their head. Bam!\u00a0 Yeah \u2013 I considered this but I really like the long hair on my head. I\u2019ve come up with a few alternatives I see for my multiple body hair issues that are staring me in the face.<\/p>\n
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Update as of 4\/14\/2015, Tuesday<\/strong> – The whole hair thing really didn’t go as planned. My hair started to fall out about 2 weeks after my first chemo and I did get one hair cut on Saturday- to cut off about 4 inches and get it about shoulder length. Problem is every time I tried to make it look “neat” by brushing or combing it – the hair just continued to easy pull out. After coming home Monday night (4\/13) to my husband with his head freshly shaved (love this show of support – completely unexpected!)- I decided to go for it and he helped rid me of the rest of the hair on my head. \u00a0Finally no more shedding in the shower! Head has been itching for a while and continues to itch but I feel so much cleaner… \u00a0I did pick up some nice hats and scarves this weekend, in preparation for the hair loss – so even when my hair was gone I never once cried about it; I just got super excited about how to accessorize and dress for work to set off my new hats! \u00a0This whole cancer thing is making me more of a girlie girl than I ever been before!<\/p>\n Update as of 4\/15\/2015<\/strong> –\u00a05 Reasons I’m ok With Losing My Hair<\/strong><\/p>\n The whole hair thing does have a silver lining…..<\/p>\n 5. Post-Shower Toweling Time:<\/em> Takes about 2 SECONDS to dry my head vs. the ages it took for my long hair (below my shoulder) to drip all over me (even when wrapped in a towel). I find that after only 2 days, I’m really ok with this – even looking forward to it.<\/p>\n 4. No hair, No Hair To Pull Back<\/em>: I’m not fighting with my hair to stay OUT of things it shouldn’t be in such as soapy water (if I’m washing my face), food (if I’m eating something and need to lean forward to not get sticky, etc.) I could go on and on. No wondering where my hair tie went (again) and why I can never find one when I need one even though I own about 10 of them! I’m totally ok with this.<\/p>\n 3. No hair, no shedding<\/em>. My hair is (was? will be again someday…) notorious for clogging up drains and breaking vacuum cleaners. We even bought the fancy, shmancy, expensive vacuum cleaner. We did specifically because you could remove the roller bar very easily in order to allow access to cut off the ton of hair wrapped around it. We did this often. I think my husband will approve of the unscheduled pause in the roller bar\u00a0maintenance\u00a0since, thinking about it, he always takes care of this, not me!<\/p>\n 2. Hats! Scarfs! Accessories!<\/em> No hair means learning to be feminine without hair. For me – this is a big deal. It took me 35 years to start wearing skirts 3 out of 5 days to work and now, I’m finding with this whole new “Fabulous and Forty” turn in my life that I’m now seeing a wonderful opportunity that I had never delved into before: accessorizing! I’ve already purchased a few adorable hats for work and for weekend fun. I purchased some new scarfs, too (though honestly I have to admit, my love of scarfs does go back farther than my breast cancer diagnosis!). Also – I realized today, that I need more hoop earrings. Hats without hair leaves my ears screaming out for earrings. And – perhaps some nice bracelets? And, oh yeah – the purse I use all the time, which is both weekend and work friendly and kid friendly and over 7 years old – \u00a0I just might need to replace that, too – perhaps with a few different purses for different moods or work or play. You catch my drift. In a very odd turn of events, breast cancer is opening my eyes to being more of a girly girl.<\/p>\n 1. My Motto for Losing my Hair (say it to yourself as you are witnessing your hair coming out in scary clumps-\u00a0<\/em>“And so it begins.. Let the shopping commence!!” \u00a0I think this should be the motto for every woman who is losing their hair to chemotherapy. Seriously. See #2 above.<\/p>\n Oh yea – and one reason I might be VERY angry about this whole hair loss thing….after speaking with someone who does waxing for a living, she shared with me a story about one client that she had. Evidently she continued to wax her client’s leg hair and arm pits through ALL of her treatments; while all of the hair had been banished from her head due to her chemotherapy, the hair on her head continued to grow and grow and grow. Seriously?! That totally is uncalled for! I’m putting in an order to my oncology nurses tomorrow (at my #2 chemo session) to make sure the chemo is directed to my obnoxious leg hair. It will be interesting to see what happens.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Update as of 5\/1\/2015<\/strong><\/p>\n Ok, so it’s been a while. Time to report out on the whole hair situation.<\/p>\n Underarm Hair:<\/em> Happy to report that the underarm hair seem to have been blasted by the chemo. No more growing! Saves me some effort which is nice.<\/p>\n Leg Hair:<\/em> So – it is still growing but it is definitely damaged. It is very, very slow. I haven’t actually shaved it in over a week or two\u00a0and it’s still super short. I’ll shave it again on the next chemo day and see how much it recovers after that. Not as annoying as I thought it was going to be. I think if I had it waxed it’d be too blown away to figure out how to grow back any time soon. Might do that if it comes back after chemo #3….<\/p>\n Head Hair<\/em>: This I had shaved off and it is continuing to grow all be it also slowly. I actually am considering having it shaved nice and close by a professional and then possibly getting a light spray tan. The whole pale\/white head thing is kind of blah. Either that or a henna tattoo…but what to put on my noggin that would be fun but also work appropriate? Perhaps just get a henna tattoo of a headband? Would be fun. Might need to look into it further…..<\/p>\n Update as of 8\/28\/2015<\/strong><\/p>\n My hair started growing back around the time of my last chemo, July 9th. They skipped the taxotere and I think that was the one doing the most damage. Either way since that date my hair has slowly been growing back. I now have a light brown fuzz on my head but it’s not yet dense enough to hide my scalp. Here’s a quick updates on the hair situation now…<\/p>\n Underarm Hair:<\/em> it’s back. \u00a0At my first shower after the surgery I dried myself off and then looked in the mirror – checking my incisions and body to make sure that everything was ok. I noticed that it was\u00a0PAST the\u00a0time to shave my armpits. I had enough hair that had grown that I went back into the shower to shave it. Funny thing is, it was hard to shave since I usually do this by putting my arm straight over my head – now I could shave it but had to keep my shoulder much lower until I’m fully healed. We are back to the old grind on this one.<\/p>\n Leg Hair:<\/em> First time I\u00a0shaved it was at my second shower after the chemo (I could have done it at the first but still felt too sore to want to mess around that much in the shower). A few days later, the hair had grown back and now I need to shave again. Yep, it’s back. Kind of miss the no-shave\/smooth as just-waxed feeling but I’m good with it. Shaving means I’m another small step closer to “normal”.<\/p>\n Head Hair<\/em>: Growing well. Very soft and brown. Can still see my scalp but it’s getting a little denser every day. Looking forward to the time when I have enough hair to put some hair styling product in it to spike it – gotta take whatever hair style I can muster….but for now, I’m still usually wearing hats – my head gets cold!<\/p>\n Rest of my Body Hair<\/em>: I’d waxed before the chemo had it’s full impact. I’m happy to say that I could definitely wax again. All is back to normal here, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (This post is NOT for the faint of heart \u2013 apologies is this is TMI (too much information) for some \u2013 you cannot say you weren\u2019t warned) Chemo. It kills hair dead \u2013 yet this morning I had to shave … Continue reading