World Cancer Day 2023: How does cancer treatment affect hair growth? (2024)

FAQs

World Cancer Day 2023: How does cancer treatment affect hair growth? ›

Chemotherapy uses powerful medicines that attack fast-growing cancer cells. The medicines also hurt other fast-growing cells in your body. These include cells in your hair roots. Chemotherapy may cause hair loss all over your body, not just on your scalp.

Most hair loss during cancer treatment is caused by chemotherapy. That's because chemo targets rapidly growing cells, which damages hair follicles and makes the hair fall out. But radiation therapy can sometimes cause hair loss, too, when it's used to treat head and neck cancers.

Chemotherapy works by killing dividing cells such as cancer cells. But normal body tissues such as the hair follicles, also have lots of diving cells. This is what makes your hair fall out.

Most people's hair will grow back once chemotherapy treatment has finished. In very rare cases, the hair does not grow back. This only happens with very high doses of particular drugs. You can ask your doctor or specialist nurse whether your drugs are likely to cause hair loss.

The answer is no. Alopecia, or hair loss, occurs as a secondary result of chemotherapy and radiation treatment. Both chemotherapy and radiation attack the rapidly growing cancer cells in your body. The treatment may also attack other normal, fast-growing cells, like the cells in your hair roots.

Hair loss occurs because the cells of hair follicles grow quickly, which makes them sensitive to the effects of some cancer treatments. Hair loss can be caused by chemotherapy, radiation therapy, hormonal therapy or targeted therapy.

Whether thinning hair can grow back depends on the cause. If it's due to temporary factors like stress, nutritional deficiencies, or certain medications, hair can often regrow once the cause is addressed. However, if it's due to genetics or permanent damage to hair follicles, regrowth may be more challenging.

Tips for Caring for After-Chemo Hair

Gently massaging/shampooing your scalp can help the circulation of blood that flows to the hair follicle and helps to aid in stimulating hair growth. Consider using a gentle deep or leave-in conditioner every week or so, such as those designed for damaged hair.

What helps hair growth after chemo? Hair growth after chemo can be stimulated to grow back faster by applying minoxidil or minoxidil alternatives. Research suggests that minoxidil (Rogaine) might speed up hair regrowth after chemo.

Your new hair might have a different texture or color. It might be curlier than it was before. It also could be gray until the cells that control the pigment in your hair begin working again.

How to accelerate hair growth? ›

Chemo belly describes how a person's abdomen can become bloated, gassy, and uncomfortable during and following chemotherapy treatments. The condition often ends following the completion of treatment. It can occur due to changes in the gut bacteria as well as changes in how food moves through the digestive tract.

So, it is not surprising that many people feel that they age dramatically during chemotherapy. During chemotherapy, the epidermis loses its ability to hold on to moisture, which leads to fine lines in the skin's surface. In the dermis, the collagen and elastin break down, which weakens the skin's support structure.

Only riboflavin, biotin, folate, and vitamin B12 deficiencies have been associated with hair loss. Vitamin B2 (riboflavin) is a component of two important coenzymes: flavin mononucleotide (FMN) and flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) [22].

A visible scalp through your hair can be a sign that it's thinning (but not always). The factors that contribute to thinning hair (and thus a visible scalp) include stress, diet, vitamin deficiency and ageing.

Tumor or cancer of the adrenal gland.

New Color, Texture or Curls

Many people report having "chemo curls," or different hair color and texture when it grows back after chemotherapy. This is because the chemotherapy medications can remain in your body and cause your hair follicles to behave differently.

There are many different causes of hair loss, and cancer is just one of them. It is also important to note that not all types of cancer cause hair loss, and many people with cancer do not experience hair loss at all. Some types of cancer that can cause hair loss include: Breast cancer.

Pilomatricoma, also known as pilomatrixoma, is a type of noncancerous (benign) skin tumor associated with hair follicles. Hair follicles are specialized structures in the skin where hair growth occurs. Pilomatricomas occur most often on the head or neck, although they can also be found on the arms, torso, or legs.