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Lynnie1974's avatar
Lynnie1974
Member
6 years ago

Trying to get through the journey of growing my hair back

Hi all

I am 6 months post chemo and I have hair, which I'm very happy about, however I am struggling with what to do with it. I used to have long brunette hair that I straightened every day (it had a natural annoying wave) and now it's grey and really course and quite curly. 

I got a hair dresser to put a bit of colour in it on Thursday and, to cut a long story short, I didn't like it and because I had a night out planned last night I decided to rectify things myself. Not a good decision! I proceed to turn my hair yellow, then green, then orange. I then had to resort to using an old brunette hair dye I had at home and now I've gotten rid of my lovely textured grey colour and am a solid blocky brunette. 

I'm 44 so am not yet ready to be grey, however, everyone loves the colour and I guess I kinda liked it too. I now don't know what to do. I miss my old hair, I hate not knowing where I'm supposed to go with my hair style. I'm looking to get some advice from a really good colourist although have to wait 4 weeks to get in to see her! My hair was my crowning glory and now it feels like a dear old friend who I can't connect with anymore.

I'd love to hear some stories of hair growth such as, did the texture change and gone back to normal after some time?

Please share any nightmare attempts at colours/styles to make me feel better about myself too. 

Thank you!
chemotherapy-side-effects
hair
  • Afraser's avatar
    Afraser
    Member
    6 years ago
    It’ll change. Some hair settles quickly, mine changed over almost three years. Started out chalk white lambswool. Not curly, frizz. But mine. We transitioned to grey - I am considerably older and had gone through growing my colour out and embracing my external grey before chemo, so grey was fine especially as it was a good steely grey. But then it gradually turned light brown, with a bit of grey. It’s straightened considerably over time (and got greyer!) but still has a bit of a curl, which I rather like after a lifetime of poker straight. Texture is slightly finer (it was quite coarse before) but that could also be age. I found about a year after it all grew back (grey and curly) that my shed pattern changed. Slight panic but all it meant is that after almost never seeing a hair on my brush or comb I now shed hair at a normal rate. No idea if it’s related. I look at the changes as an inexpensive way of experimenting with new looks! 
  • Zoffiel's avatar
    Zoffiel
    Member
    6 years ago
    My brutalist approach has been to keep clipping it off at a #4 until I was absolutely sure there was no chemo fuzz left. 
    My first experience was that it took a couple of months for the regrowth to look normal enough for me to be able to tolerate it. I was 43 then and by the time I was 50 it was curly and waist length again, albeit not as dark as previously. I stopped permanent  dying it and just used rinses to give it a bit of colour.
    Roll forward to the present, it took me 18 months to stop clipping it following chemo in 2016/17. My poor partner hated it, but I didn't mind. It was a bit edgy and deliberate rather than its current state. Now it's straight and totally grey but the quality is OK. It's driving me spare growing it out but it's nearly at the point I can get some sort of style cut into it. I must admit it's nice to not be confronted by my jug like ears all the time :)