Being on ‘Hair Watch’ After Starting Chemotherapy
I’m at day 15. My chemotherapy began two weeks ago, thus today is “day 15” after that initial infusion. Two weeks ago, I was told that my hair could begin falling out after day 14. So today, day 15, I’m on Hair Watch.
I’ve been babying my hair. I played with my mother’s dolls when I was young, and now I’m treating my own hair as gently as I once did those dolls’ hair. I’ve been brushing it so gently and carefully. And washing it so gently and carefully.
But, it’s going to come out.
I’m getting one of the taxane drugs in my “chemo cocktail”: Taxol. These taxane drugs are really terrific at fighting breast cancer, but also good at killing off all the hair on my body. The only difficult hair loss will be of that on my head.
I know it can be hard for all women when the chemo does this to their hair. It’s odd evidence of belonging to a sort of cancer sorority. Losing my hair is difficult because, in terms of physical assets, I believe it’s my best asset. I have thick, quite nice hair. What will I look like without my best asset?
And I could have tried to save it. Some women try to retain their hair during chemo and use a cold treatment, wearing caps containing dry ice packs during treatments. It is expensive: you must rent the equipment and hire a specialist to change the dry ice packs repeatedly. But I chose not to use this process because I learned it requires sitting in place for eight hours. I can barely sit still for the two- to three-hour duration of my infusion. So, I had an option of potentially keeping my hair, and I knowingly chose not to take it. It was helpful to know the option was there.
In the meantime, I’m armed with lots of camouflage: I have scarves, ball caps, hats (some from a particularly thoughtful friend) and a wig. My best-hairdresser-on-planet-Earth took me wig-shopping last week. He thought we should get that task out of the way before I actually needed the wig. I chose the wig that was closest to my present hair color and style. If I get another wig, I may be more adventurous. We’ll see.
Today I’ve washed and am air-drying my hair. (Remember, I’m babying it!) But, when my hair is dry, I think I’m going to run some errands while my hair seems rooted to my head.
Thinkstock image by m-gucci