Chemotherapy Permanent Hair Loss

[Marilyn]

I am "hair challenged". First had Taxotere in 2000 for four doses. My hair grew back thick and curly. Mets to bones in 2001 and 6 months of weekly Taxotere, Herceptin, and Zometa (although I'm not sure the Zometa was weekly). After this my hair did not completely come back in and was very thin. I am still getting Herceptin and after all this time I have had some hair regrowth. From the front I have a normal head of hair although thinner than what I had previously. I do not have much hair at all in my crown so wear a piece to cover the hair loss. I really don't know why I have this problem amd haven't figured out what to do to make my hair thicken up. Wish I could figure that out. I do know that I am the only person I know personally that has this problem and I've met a lot of people in my 10 years in a chemo chair.

[rinaina]

I was on AC and herceptin treatments and my hair on my head came back but darker, much greyer thinner and tons of cowlicks too. I am a 5 year survivor now and I never got my eyebrows back. I have very few eyelashes and they are very fragile and fall out easily. I hate having to draw my eyebrows on every day. They never look the same twice and it is time consuming, (probably because I am a perfectionist. I won't walk out of the house without my eyebrows penciled in. I have tried the stencils and it didn't work well for me. If I had a real reliable referal I would get them tatooed in a minute..but it would really have to be a good referal. Anyone know anyone in Chicago area for this? I assume a plastic surgeon's office would know. As for our hair problems, the way I see it, I am thankful to have survived 5years and that is what really matters. There are great wigs, not that it is fun to have to wear one all the time, and there is great makeup out there to compensate for no lashes/eyebrows. Let the years just keep coming.

[Mary L]

Rina, I was very interested in your post. My hair came back thick, grey and curly. After 1 year it was back to straight. Now after being off chemo and Herceptin for 3 1/2 years it has changed completely. Now it is thin, falling out and I have so many cowlicks I can hardly style my hair. I had my thyroid checked and it is fine. So what's up with my hair??? I wake up in the morning and it is sticking up like feathers. I have my wigs from my chemo days and I guess I'll be wearing them again in the near future. I do have my eyebrows but they are thining. I use a light brown eye shadow to fill them in. I know how you feel. Mary L

[srmink]

Hello everyone-
(sorry I can't get the bold off)
I landed here after doing a Google search on permanent hair loss following chemotherapy. While I am a breast cancer survivor, I am not HER-2 positive. I did, however, have Taxotere (last infusion 9/29/10) and most of my hair did not return. Just enough to look really stupid - male pattern baldness, thin, baby fine and very slow growing. In a word - it's awful. I have permanent makeup for eyebrows and liner. I do have enough lashes glob mascara on, but they're rather puny. I highly recomment permanent makeup (tattoos) for anyone and wonder why I didn't do it years ago.
I wanted to comment about the hair solution mentioned here. I know a woman who also did this (different brand, same concept). She loves it. When we met about a year ago and she told me about it, she also told me how expensive it was. My response was I could sure have a lot of wigs for that price. Now after 2 years of trying just about everything, I'm pretty sick of this and may look into it.
I'm interested to know about others' experiences and solutions. I am ER+ and on Arimidex and may switch to Femara to see if that helps. While they both have the same side effect of hair thinning, it might not happen on a different AI. I am, however, convinced it's the Taxotere because it was obvious my hair was not returning before I started Arimidex.

Thanks for any feedback. Hope you're all doing well.

Suzanne