Coping with… HAIR LOSS
Losing your hair is not usually anything to be worried about, but it can be quite upsetting
It’s normal to lose 50-100 hairs daily, often without noticing, but losing more may be a sign of ill health. Male and female pattern baldness are permanent, and usually run in families. Other types may be temporary, caused by illness, stress, weight loss, iron deficiency, thyroid disorders and cancer treatments.
Most hair loss doesn’t need treatment. Discuss it with your doctor, who can do some blood tests. Most treatments aren’t available on the NHS, only privately, and even then, no treatment is 100% effective.
For male pattern baldness, drugs, including finasteride and minoxidil, can help, but only while you’re taking them. Minoxidil can help female pattern baldness, but women can’t take finasteride. Wigs are possibly available on the NHS if you qualify for financial help, but they may be synthetic – they’re cheaper and last six to nine months, but can be itchy and hot. Real-hair wigs last longer, though they’re harder to look after. Other treatments include steroid injections or cream, light therapy, immunotherapy, tattooing, hair transplant and scalp reduction surgery.
Hair loss is often a side effect of cancer treatments, including some chemotherapy, depending on drug type and dose, individual sensitivity and previous drug treatment. Chemo kills dividing
cells, such as cancer cells, and other dividing cells, such as hair follicles. Not all the drugs cause hair loss, though. If one does, it starts a few weeks after treatment begins and usually hair grows back over several months once treatment is finished. Hormone therapies (such as tamoxifen for breast cancer), targeted cancer drugs and immunotherapy are more likely to cause hair thinning, which may be mild, patchy or complete, occurring gradually or fairly quickly, and can affect eyelashes, eyebrows
‘For most people, hair will return’
and other body hair. Radiotherapy can cause hair loss in the treated area. One treatment, epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors, can cause permanent hair loss.
For most, hair will return once treatment has finished, for some, patchily, thicker or thinner, and even a different colour or curlier. Other targeted cancer drugs cause hair growth in unexpected areas such as on the face or very long, curly eyelashes.
If the thought of losing your hair is very upsetting, your medical team might suggest a treatment less likely to cause hair loss or ways of reducing it, such as scalp cooling, but it’s not suitable for everyone. Some people shave their hair off completely to avoid the distress of seeing it fall out.
You’ll find more advice from Cancer Research UK at cancerresearchuk.org/ about-cancer/coping/physically/changesappearance/hair-loss