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Chemotherapy Hair Loss Cancer Symptoms

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Many aspects have been covered in this article so that you can benefit from an extended research.

Chemotherapy hair loss is one of the numerous effects of this cancer treatment. Why does one lose hair during chemotherapy? The medication used in chemotherapy is extremely powerful and it destroys all the developing cancer cells, although they affect other body parts too. There are normal body cells with a rapid growth rate, and they are not cancer; the cells in the digestive tract and the hair follicles are the main examples here. The effects of chemotherapy on hair are manifest for all the body parts covered by hair. Unfortunately, eyelashes, eyebrows, armpit and pubic hair and other body hair may also fall out.

There is a wide variety of drugs that are used in chemotherapy. Among these, obviously some are more likely to cause chemotherapy hair loss than others. The difference in chemotherapy drug doses is relevant for chemotherapy hair loss, and while some patients will experience thinning of the hair others will go completely bald. Thus, discussing the medication that will be prescribed with the doctor and nurse is very important as they are the specialists able to inform the patient on what to expect from chemotherapy.

In most cases you’ll start losing hair within ten or fourteen days after you start chemotherapy. It may happen quite fast, either in clumps or gradually. Hair loss usually continues throughout the treatment and even one month after it. Half of the hair can fall out before this is noticed by people around. Luckily, in most cases, chemotherapy hair loss is a temporary effect. Hair can be expected to grow back within six months to one year from the end of the procedure. Although the regrowth of the hair occurs in most of the cases, the new hair could be of a different texture and shade temporarily.

The hair recovery period after chemotorapy is six weeks on the average, and generally, the hair grows at a rate of about a quarter inch each month. When the hair starts growing back again, it might be a little different from the hair that was lost because of therapy. The changes will stop and the hair will become what it used to be before the treatment the moment cellular pigmentation is functioning normally all over again. Unfortunately, chemotherapy hair loss cannot be prevented as there is no treatment which will guarantee that the hair will not fall out.

Well there you have it, that the end of this article thanks for reading.

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