Dealing with chemo hair loss

Dealing with chemo hair loss

When I was going through chemo, one of the worst side effects was losing my hair. That might sound dramatic, but I felt as though I had lost my femininity and was advertising my illness to the whole world. I tried to put a brave face on it but it was really quite depressing to look in the mirror and see myself like that. I also hadn’t realised that it was going to be so cold. I had to resort to wearing beanies to bed. Not a great look!

I just assumed that there was nothing that I could do about it except buy wigs or pretty scarves. I bought two wigs and hated both of them because they wouldn’t stay put. I had quite a few colourful scarves and tried to tie them in different ways to make them look attractive. If you need some ideas, this YouTube video might help - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yeNjDPbEZY.

I was pretty lucky: my hair grew back evenly and within about 3 months after chemo ended, although I relapsed and had to have more chemo, which meant another 3 months of regrowth. But I remember meeting a lady whose regrowth was really patchy, with tufts here and there all over her head. I really felt for her and have often wondered whether it did eventually grow back properly. 

If you’ve had radiation therapy to your head and neck area, you can also experience hair loss in the same way, so this advice also applies to you.

Cooling cap

The best solution would have been not to lose it in the first place. With some drugs, you can wear a cooling cap that restricts the blood flow to the hair follicles whilst you’re actually being treated with them. That helps to protect the follicles. The caps reduce the loss to some extent but not completely. They’re most effective on solid tumours and if you’re having taxane-based chemo, which includes the drugs paclitaxel and docetaxel (1).

Medication

Topical Minoxidil has been shown to help with increasing hair regrowth after chemo (2). But it can have side effects, like itching or a rash and, more rarely, acne at the application site, burning scalp, facial hair growth, increased hair loss, soreness or inflammation, skin reddening and facial swelling. If you use too much, there can (rarely) be more serious side effects (3).

Natural remedies

If prevention and medication aren’t helpful, there are some ways to help it grow back evenly and more quickly. Improving the circulation is one way and you can do that quite easily by massaging your head regularly.

Better still, use a solution of 5% lavender oil in a jojoba oil base when you massage. In a study using mice, which have similar hair growth patterns to humans, this was shown to be almost as effective as Minoxidil at encouraging regrowth (4). And you’ll have the other side effects of lavender oil too: it’s known to be wonderful for stress and anxiety, as well as being a pleasant smell.

Another essential oil that you could use is Platycladus orientalis, commonly known as Arborvitae or Thuja. A different study found that an extract of one of the active constituents of the essential oil significantly increased hair growth, again in mice, especially in the females (5). Arborvitae is a kind of conifer, so again it should smell quite pleasant. The essential oil is fairly readily available.

You might have read that rosemary oil is good for promoting hair growth. That’s true. It’s been shown to be effective for male pattern baldness caused by too much testosterone and also for alopecia areata, which is an autoimmune condition. But there isn’t any evidence that rosemary oil alone can help with cancer treatment-related hair loss (6).

A Japanese study showed that Gingko biloba extract helped to regrow hair in mice, but since the paper was in Japanese it’s difficult to evaluate it properly (7).

Green tea might be worth trying. One study used EGCG, the main active component, topically, both in vitro on cultured human cells and in vivo on human heads. They found that it was very effective at promoting hair growth (8). You could try dabbing cold strong green tea on your head regularly.

Safflower extract is another possibility. A study, again using mice, found that it worked in the same way as Minoxidil, both stimulating hair growth to start and progress more quickly (9).

I wasn’t aware of all of these possibilities when I lost my hair. Instead I focused on nutrition, trying to promote my health generally. That involved a lot of fruit and vegetables, wild caught oily fish like salmon, nuts and seeds. These provide all the nutrients that are known to have an effect on hair growth:

•      vitamin A

•      vitamin B

• vitamin C

•     vitamin D

• vitamin E

• calcium

•    copper

• iron

• potassium

• selenium

• silica

(10)

I also took, and have continued to take, a silica supplement, which is important for growing strong hair, teeth, nails, bones and skin. The type I use is colloidal silica. There are other types and some are reputed to be better absorbed but colloidal silica has certainly worked for me. If I stop taking it, I notice the difference in my nails within a few weeks: they start splitting and breaking more easily. Silica is known to promote collagen and, although it doesn’t encourage new hair growth, collagen improves the quality of the hair as it regrows (11). My hairdresser tells me that my hair is very strong.

I hope that these ideas help you to recover your hair more quickly. If you would like to find out how to deal with other side effects of treatment, check out my book here.

References

1.   Chan A, Bauwens A, Pontre S et al. Efficacy of scalp cooling in reducing alopecia in early breast cancer patients receiving contemporary chemotherapy regimens. The Breast. 2018;41:127-132. doi:10.1016/j.breast.2018.07.006

2.   Duvic M, Lemak N, Valero V et al. A randomized trial of minoxidil in chemotherapy-induced alopecia. J Am Acad Dermatol. 1996;35(1):74-78. doi:10.1016/s0190-9622(96)90500-9

3.   Drugs.com. Minoxidil topical Side Effects. Drugs.com. https://www.drugs.com/sfx/minoxidil-topical-side-effects.html. Published 2022. Accessed July 8, 2022.

4.   Lee B, Lee J, Kim Y. Hair Growth-Promoting Effects of Lavender Oil in C57BL/6 Mice. Toxicol Res. 2016;32(2):103-108. doi:10.5487/tr.2016.32.2.103

5.   Zhang Y, Han L, Chen S, Guan J, Qu F, Zhao Y. Hair growth promoting activity of cedrol isolated from the leaves of Platycladus orientalis. Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy. 2016;83:641-647. doi:10.1016/j.biopha.2016.07.022

6.   Villines Z. Rosemary oil and hair growth: Research, effectiveness, and tips. Medicalnewstoday.com. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/319444#research. Published 2017. Accessed July 11, 2022.

7.   Kobayashi N, Suzuki R, Koide C, Suzuki T, Matsuda H, Kubo M. Effect of Leaves of Ginkgo biloba on Hair Regrowth in C3H Strain Mice. Yakugaku Zasshi. 1993;113(10):718-724. doi:10.1248/yakushi1947.113.10_718

8.   Kwon O, Han J, Yoo H et al. Human hair growth enhancement in vitro by green tea epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG). Phytomedicine. 2007;14(7-8):551-555. doi:10.1016/j.phymed.2006.09.009

9.   Junlatat J, Sripanidkulchai B. Hair Growth-Promoting Effect of Carthamus tinctorius Floret Extract. Phytotherapy Research. 2013;28(7):1030-1036. doi:10.1002/ptr.5100

10. Rambwawasvika H, Dzomba P, Gwatidzo L. Alopecia types, current and future treatment. Journal of Dermatology & Cosmetology. 2021;5(4):93-99. doi:10.15406/jdc.2021.05.00190

11. Lindberg S. The Benefits of Silica Supplements. Livestrong.com. https://www.livestrong.com/article/275676-the-benefits-of-silica-supplements/. Published 2022. Accessed July 12, 2022.