Hair Loss During Breast Cancer

More than likely, you have heard something about breast cancer. Maybe you have heard that breast cancer is the second major cause of death in women. Maybe you have heard that at least one out of eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer within their lifetime. But did you know that every year over 200,000 women will be diagnosed within the United States and it will claim the life of at least 40,000.

For those women who have found themselves in the fight for their life, chemotherapy is typically the best option for treatment. However, for many at the beginning, chemotherapy doesn’t mean gaining health, it means a loss. Chemotherapy tends to mean hair loss for most patients, which can be just as devastating as the cancer itself. Before completely panicking about your treatment, it is important to learn about chemotherapy and its potential effect on your appearance.

Hair loss tends to occur during chemotherapy because the treatment is meant to target all cells that divide rapidly within the body, both healthy and cancer cells. Because the hair follicles are one of the most rapidly dividing cells within the body, chemotherapy tends to affect them the most as far as healthy cells go. As you begin your treatment, prepare yourself for the sudden loss of hair, typically in clumps. To better prepare yourself, look into how your specific drug is known to affect hair. Some of the most often used chemotherapy drugs for breast cancer are the following:

Taxol- This drug typically causes complete hair loss in patients, including eyelashes, legs, arms, and eyebrows. Therefore, we need many wigs for cancer patients.

Methotrexate- This drug typically only causes hair thinning instead of complete hair loss. In some cases, hair won’t even thin.

Adriamycin- Within the first couple of weeks of treatment with this drug, many patients will experience hair loss. Some might even notice the loss of their eyebrows and eyelashes.

Cytoxan- This drug can be unpredictable when it comes to hair loss. While some patients don’t lose any hair, other patients may experience full hair loss.

Here, we help our clients with their hair loss. If you find yourself experiencing hair loss, call us to discuss options. We specialize in custom synthetic and human hair wigs, partial pieces, and toppers to cover any level of hair loss. Whether your hair loss is only temporary or a permanent occurrence, our stylists will be able to create the look you want with a high quality wig, topper, or partial piece.