No one wants to lose their hair, especially while they’re battling something as tough as cancer. Unfortunately, chemotherapy is one of the best treatments for cancer, but commonly causes hair loss as a side effect of the treatment. Hair is often tied to your identity, self-image, and overall confidence, especially for women, making chemo’s side effects harder to deal with.
Even though you may end up losing your hair from your chemotherapy treatments, remember to focus on the end goal of remission while reminding yourself that hair loss is temporary and your locks will grow back in no time, especially with the use of nourishing oils to promote hair growth. We're here to help!
How Does Chemo Cause Hair Loss?
Chemotherapy is used as a cancer treatment to kill off cancerous cells in the body. However, this treatment is so strong that it can also affect healthy cells, including those within the roots of your hair. In addition to hair loss, other common side effects of chemotherapy include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fatigue, fever, mouth sores, and more.
Some people are unaware of the fact that chemotherapy doesn’t just affect the hair on your head, but all over your body! This includes your eyebrows, eyelashes, and other areas of body hair.
The good news is that all of this is temporary and is often necessary to get you towards the end goal of being cancer-free.
When Will Hair Start Growing Back?
Even though hair loss from chemo is temporary, it’s definitely not a fun process and so many people wonder just how long it will last. After all, you’re probably just looking forward to getting your life back and feeling like yourself again!
The good news is that our hair is strong, resilient, and fast-growing, so your hair should start to grow back a few weeks after you have finished your chemotherapy treatments. Within three to six months, you should be well on your way to getting your hair back, but it’s important to remain patient during this process.
What To Expect During the Regrowth Process
You may be overjoyed when your hair starts to grow back, but become concerned if it doesn’t happen exactly as you expected.
As it turns out, the hair that you grow back initially may not look like the hair that you used to have. For example, the texture of your hair may be different than before— for example it could be curlier than it was before. It may also begin growing back in a different color, perhaps even grey.
The good news is that these changes are totally normal and are usually temporary as your cells begin functioning normally again. Over time though, most people end up growing back hair that is similar to the hair that they had before chemotherapy treatments!
How To Promote Hair Growth After Chemo
While there’s no magic way to get your long luscious locks back overnight after chemo, there are some things that you can do to help promote hair growth after you have completed your treatments.
Here are some different ways that you can promote hair growth after chemo so that you can get your hair and confidence back in no time:
- One of the best things you can do to promote hair growth after chemo is to baby your new hair as it grows in. This means not brushing it too much, as this can lead to unintentionally removing hair that’s just starting to grow back. So, always gently brush and comb your hair as it grows back in.
- While your hair is growing back, you need to avoid using dyes, perms, or bleach on it while it tries to get its groove back. No matter how tempting it is to dye it or perm it, especially if it looks quite different from your old hair, you need to wait it out and be patient.
- Another thing to avoid while your hair is growing back after chemo is heat styling. This means no hair dryers, curling irons, straighteners, etc. Instead, just let your hair air-dry after washing to ensure that it grows back quickly and strongly.
- If you’re really looking to stimulate your hair follicles and promote hair growth after chemo, you could try using essential oils. Essential oils can be applied directly to the scalp to promote hair growth and strengthen the roots of existing strands. Some of the best essential oils for hair growth include lavender essential oil, peppermint essential oil, rosemary essential oil, ylang-ylang essential oil, tea tree essential oil, and bergamot essential oil.
- Another great option that you can use to stimulate hair growth is WOW Skin Science’s 10 in 1 Hair Oil. This all-natural vegan product contains a ton of beneficial ingredients that can promote hair growth by nourishing your scalp, such as cold pressed extra virgin olive oil, rosemary essential oil, tea tree essential oil, Vitamin E, bhringraj extract, almond oil, argan oil, jojoba oil, grapeseed oil, and safflower oil. With just a few drops of this stuff, you’ll have your hair back in no time!
- Finally, the last thing you can do to promote hair growth after chemotherapy actually relates to what you put inside your body rather than how you treat it on the outside. By maintaining a healthy diet filled with vitamins, minerals, proteins, and enough water, you won’t just feel better on the inside, but also look better on the outside as well with longer and stronger hair.
Conclusion
Going through chemotherapy is tough, but you will come out stronger in the end. It’s understandable that you want to get back to looking and feeling like your old self after all that you’ve been through -- and your hair can play a huge role in this. By taking steps to promote hair growth after chemo, you can get your hair back in no time!
Sources:
- https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/chemotherapy/in-depth/hair-loss/art-20046920#:~:text=Fortunately%2C%20most%20of%20the%20time,a%20different%20shade%20or%20texture.
- https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/319446#will-hair-look-or-feel-different-after-chemo
- https://parenting.firstcry.com/articles/magazine-effective-tips-to-improve-hair-growth-after-chemo/
Recommended Products
No recommended products
Related Articles
Quick and Easy Way To Measure Your Hair Density
Catherine Abel
6 mins
7 Benefits That Come From Using a Scalp Brush on Your Hair
Nancy Smith
6 mins
What Is Type 4B Hair and How To Care For It
Catherine Abel
6 mins
Latest posts: