Bad hair days/ open thread

[cuteus]

As i glance at the bathroom wastebin, I noticed how handsome IT looks with a full head of MY hair! My coat has its share also.

I had started washing it only once, thinking it would help, but it did not and now the dandruff is back also. I had stopped the coal tar shampoo because it might be too harsh, but between the meds and the dandruff, the hair doesn't stand a chance. Talk about depressing, I was crying over the wastebin yet another time.  I also noticed increased thirst and dryness, probably contributed to by the home heating, Now i understand those of you drinking tons of H20.  I was not drinking as much and did not feel the need, until now.  
If it wasn't so cold out i would consider a Kojak head.

I know, grin and bear. (wait, it sounds like labor).

Ive

[lookin-up]

3 1/2 years ago I had chemo for breast cancer and I decided to shave my head rather than deal with clumps of hair everywhere.  At that time, shaving my head was harder to handle than the fact that I had cancer.  But I am here (thank God!!!) to tell everybody that it is now ALL just a memory....and looking back, after getting used to the fact, I chose to have fun with it - best I could.  We have so much to give from the inside, and it just might be that our "thinning hair" can be of inspiration to others in many ways apart from our Hep-C or cancer.

I just did #29/48 and my hair is now thinning.  REMEMBER, that this is temporary!!  After the first "go-round" I learned that who we are is NOT our hair, and, after being bald for so long, I discovered that there's so much more to "me" than the external.  My hair grew back thick & curly...and there's the bonus!

My only regret is that I didn't get that funky Tina Turner wig I always joked about -

Oh, well!
Keep on Lookin' up!!!

[jetty]

In the middle of my treatment, when I was feeling really, really lousy, my best friend, who's suffering from terminal brain cancer, needed me to come for her surgery.  Though traveling cross country was the last thing I was up for, sometimes you've gotta take one for the team.  When I saw her and her beautiful baby daughter, I knew I'd done the right thing.  She was at Mass General.  They have a special shop there for cancer survivors.  Picking out some babushkas for my friend to wear on hear completely bald head helped me put my own situation in perspective.  I tried to remember this every time I looked in the mirror and felt like crying.

I'm so glad Galen's here to help us all with her sage advice.  Galen, you've really been an inspiration to me.  A big shout out to compassionate hairdressers everywhere!  I had been too ashamed? embarassed? disgusted? to see my hairdresser during tx.  When I finally did, she was so great.  She recommened shampoo/conditioner that would detoxify the hair and gave me a great cut that would work when my hair finally began to grow in.  BTW, at first I used Nioxin products.  I hated the smell, and since my head was almost always damp from sweat, the odor really began to bother me.  I switched to a gentle shampoo with a pleasant smell.  I figured, hell, the hair's going to fall out anyway.  What little hair was left might as well smell good.  Now, 22 weeks post-tx, hair's growing back and I did something I always wanted to do but I was afraid to--I'm a redhead.  The dragon tried to kill me but instead it taught me how to live.  Take that, beastie!!

[doll face]

Thank you. I too took my step mother in a few months back after losing all her hair to chemo (lymph node cancer) but we Made a good day out of it and tried on all kinds of silly looking wigs.I thank God every day that I am only going through tx for Hep C instead of something worse. I guess that I will keep doing what I Have been. My hair grew back just fine last time I got off of tx and it will again when I am done with this round.

[Galen]

Your hairdresser is right that henna won't cover your grey.  In fact, it is liable to turn it an odd color.  Must have been someone else that mentioned it.  I colored my own hair all through tx but using a demi-permanent color with 9 volume hydrogen peroxide (permanent color normally uses 20 volume and contains amonia).  Unless you have fine hair, you may not get total coverage but will be able to blend the grey.  One caveat, I dislike Redken Shades colors because they can make normal hair feel like h**l and can make our hair really nasty. I use L'Oreal Dia color, a professional line.  There are others that will work well, too.
I am now 20 weeks post-tx and my hair is recovering nicely, so hang in there and try to put this small problem in perspective.  Two weeks ago I accompanied a close friend to the wig shop for her second round of chemo and felt very small for worrying too much about my own situation.

[cuteus]

That is exactly it, the hair makes your tx a tangible entity, the visual input seems to be more dramatic than the feelings.  With the feelings you wonder if it is all in your head.  you feel it, but you still wonder.
The hair loss, the baggier bags under your eyes, the wrinklier wrinkles, the dryer skin,  they are Visual facts that This is real, there is no wondering, YOU can see it, and seeing is believing, is it not?
  I thought it so trivial to mourn the hair, but I know it was not all about a bad hair day, the mourning was for ALL the losses.
Thank you all for seeing it with me.

[jetty]

I am six months post-tx.  Ah, yes, the hair loss.  I experienced it throught my six months of treatment and a couple of months post (thyroid was out of whack).  Intellectually we all know that hair loss is pretty much the least of our problems, but it sure is demoralizing to have a palm full of hair in your hands after every shower.  I never really thought about my hair before that much, took it for granted.  But you sure do miss it when it's gone.  Why is the hair thing so upsetting?  For me it was a constant, daily reminder of my illness, of how lousy and unattractive I felt.  It was bad enought that I felt like I was inhabiting someone else's body (who's hair is this?  who's skin is this?  who's BRAIN is this 'cause it's certainly not mine?). The hair thing was a daily, tangible reminder of how cruddy I felt and thought I looked.

So far I'm undetectable, and I plan on staying that way.  My hair is growing back, and the rest of the nasty sides have abated.  My friend even convinced me to dye my hair for the first time ever as a means of combating the thinness.  I feel sassy and happy and healthy.  Was the misery of the treatment worth it? Yes, yes, yes!!  But please know that we understand.  We know what you're going through.  And sure we understand that losing one's hair is a small price to pay.  But that doesn't diminish how painful and upsetting it can be.

[cindee]

Sorry to hear about your hair loss. I went thru the same. I am 3 months post tx. My hair stopped falling out about the 6th month into tx. Galen has been a hairdresser for 28 yrs. and thanks to her post, I put a perm in my hair 2wks ago. It looks great and made me feel really good!!! Thanks Galen!!!! We love ya girl! Cindee

[doll face]

I knew you would pop up on this thread. Hope everything is going good for you. I haven't been here as much lately and really miss some of you. My question for you is. Since I did usually dye my hair every six weeks (lots of gray) and haven't been since tx. every 3-4 months now, you had mentioned using henna before, will that really cover the gray? My hair dresser said that she didn't think that would work for me well but she has no experience with hep c problems and I respect your opinion. Thanks Kim

[Galen]

There are options other than coal tar products for problem scalps.  Prithione Zinc, which is the active ingredient in DHS Zinc shampoo and Head and Shoulders is one.  Salicylic acid, found in Vanseb and Neutrogena T/Sal, is another.  These tend to be more hair friendly than coal tar shampoo.  Many of these are fragrence and dye free making them gentler on sensitive skin that we get on tx.  DHS also has a conditioner that goes with it.  Good luck

[yucatanchic]

Look, So I dont agree with your puppet and playmate, does that alienate me from answers to my husbands questions. He is suffering from HepC too.He just had a bx with no meds or ultrasound. We have questions.

[yucatanchic]

Billy had his Bx today. Said it hurt a few seconds, he thought it was another shot of novacain. Then they said" you are done"...Tonight he feels some pain in the area. Tomorrow my daughter and I leave for Yucatan. Is there any other sides to Bx?

[DownThisRoad]

I've lost tons of hair.  Not in patches, but my hair is so unusually thin right now.  My hair loss started about week 28. Since I wasn't experiencing any hair loss prior, I thought I had a good chance to escape the dreaded hair deal while taking these meds.  Well after week 25, it hit me full force.  First I started noticing all this hair in my shower, on my wash buff or wash cloth, in my hair brush, all over my bathroom and then obviously my vacuum was full of my hair.

I started to use the Nioxin products. I don't know if they really helped or not.  I still continue to loose hair.  Maybe the Nioxin products were good for my hair but maybe even better for my mind.

I'm on week 42 and it seems as though my hair loss has subsided and not been so bad for the past month.  Maybe that is the end of loosing all this hair, or maybe it's not.

I've heard from several people who do these treatment meds that your hair does come back after a while when you stop the treatment medications. Not only does it come back, they say, your hair comes back really nice and healthy.

Just a small price to pay in order to treat this disease and give yourself a chance to rid your body of the virus.   Mhhhhhhh, that's what I keep telling myself anyway.

[DebbieDo]

I heard that you should use a silk pillow slip, this will help for pulling on the hair while sleeping.......humidifer is good it you are using the heater........i wash my hair every third day and i comb once a day........not hairloss yet......i will do #8 Monday

[ms.star]

Bad hair is right.  There is more of my hair on everything else but me.  It is lifeless and just looks bad all the time.  The other day I had my head upside down blow drying it and my 13 year old daughter came walking in and she yelled and started to cry, when I asked her why she was crying she said it was because under the back of my hair I had several big balding spots.  She got really upset about it and I assured her that it would grow back and no one could ever tell as long as I keep my hari down.  Sometimes it is harder on our families than we realize.  I'm sorry to hear that you too are thinning up top but just remember that this is not forever and our hair is going to grow back.  
Starla