Sunday, July 4, 2010

Post-Chemo Hair Watch

First, let me wish anybody who finds the blog today a very happy 4th of July.  Independence Day is my favorite holiday.  I love the US, and am continually amazed at the brilliance of our constitution and our forefathers.

Even more, I love hotdogs, watermelon and blowing stuff up.

In honor of my freedom from baldness, here is my progress from the end of chemo until now.

March 14th, 2010.  (My last chemo was March 31st.)



March 24th.


May 2nd, a month after chemo.


Today, the 4th of July. Three months post chemo.


I'm actually starting to dig the color.  (We gray haired-types say stuff like "dig."  We love those groovy slang words, unlike you young whippersnappers.)


All is not perfect in hair land however, despite my unexpected acceptance of being gray.  It is starting to curl around the edges, kind of like bozo the clown.  And, it's fuzzing up everywhere, probably because it's getting thick underneath.  I'm using hair glue to keep it in place on top and on the sides.

When I say glue, I do mean it. 

But, no glue in the world controls the curl.  When I say curl, I mean the kind of curl that needs a relaxer, not the kind of curl that you could blow dry or flatiron straight. Very tight, very strong, very kinked curls that feel more like steel wool than hair.   My stylist says when it's long enough she'll relax it, but we aren't there yet. 

What say you?  Should I keep it gray or dye it?

For reference, here was the color before:


Oh wait, that's my cat. Well, it was close.



I don't have many pictures of me pre-cancer, and I don't have editing software to cut out all the excess stuff you don't need to see.  But, I think you can see the color.

Gray?  Auburn?

15 comments:

  1. Gray! I had chemo and had no idea what color my hair would be, when I got it back....I had colored my hair for so many years that I thought I probably had all white hair. Surprise! I had the kinky curly hair too but it was a beautiful salt & pepper and everyone carried on so much about it, even strangers, making comments about my beautiful hair. It was so much easier and less expensive and I started LOVING my hair! I had absolutely not a doubt that I would go back to coloring my hair but now I will never color it again. By the way, give it about a year and your hair will lose that curl! I am just now getting to that point. Best Wishes, I go for my 3 month blood check this week. I hope for a good report this time and you'll reach that point, too...time has helped me so much, to lose my terrible fear of this dreadful disease.

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  2. I say gray! It's beautiful... not to mention cheaper to maintain.

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  3. Keep it as it is and get trim to get rid of some of the curl. I got regular hair cuts after chemo and each time more gray got cut off. Now its back to its normal color.

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  4. It's very flattering on you. Keep it. The style and the color both! The long hair just made your face look too thing. Look how beautiful your eyes & smile are framed by the short hair. You look fantastic. And look at those boobs in that tank. Who would know one wasn't for real besides you?

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  5. GRAY!!!! It looks awesome.

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  6. Gray! You look fantastic! It doesn't make you look older. It really works with makeup you chosen. You look vibrant and healthy and beautiful. Although you're probably wondering how the hell am going to get up from this position. Thanks Tamox.

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  7. Good luck on your blood tests, anon.

    As for the boobs, I do need some editing software. I wanted to put arrows with "fake" and "expanded" pointing to them. Neither is real - one has the expander and one has padding to match. At my age and size, with DDs, I look like a age-fetish porn star, but it's better than an age/amputation fetish porn star. :)

    Clarice, you read my mind. Before, I would have plopped myself on the ground, but this time I had to get a little stool, position it just right, sit so I could stand again......

    Hope ya'll had a nice 4th (the Americans, anyway.)

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  8. Gray looks good on you and best of all it looks thick and rich.

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  9. I think you should leave it as it is. It's only hair. YOUR A SURVIVOR! Survivors can have any kind of hair they want. You won the battle now you get to pick.

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  10. Gray looks so good on you! You're like the cool American version of Annie Lennox!

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  11. Mine came back in a tightly curled hair..puff. My hairdresser DID straighten it for me (I couldn't STAND it!) and once it got a little length it straightened on its own!

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  12. the short pixie 'do looks great on you...highlights your great smile and really shows your face. all that long hair was hiding you! the color looks good, too. i think really white hair can look hip! my formerly red hair is coming back a real dull, mousy color.

    p.s. i'm 41 and a couple months into tamoxifen. i hate it, too. i feel suddenly old and (even more) bitchy and can't sleep w/o my restoril. my oncologist says the tamox shouldn't cause sleep issues and he won't write the Rx for me again. think i'm going to have to get in his face a bit next visit...

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  13. I like the grey. But you also really rock as a red-head (from a "born-again" red-head like myself)....I guess one advantage of short hair is that if you do decide to dye it, you can grow out the color pretty easily.
    - Ingrid

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  14. http://girlstuff.tumblr.com/post/775587632/dear-ann-you-can-so-work-this-look

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  15. fshnvctm: Thank you! I registered on tumblr to comment on your blog a few days ago but can't seem to figure it out.

    I only wish I was as lovely as Annie Lennox.

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