Chemotherapy, a powerful cancer treatment, often brings various side effects, including hair changes. While hair loss is widely recognized, alterations in hair color and texture are also frequently observed. This article explores how chemotherapy influences hair, detailing the specific changes that can occur and what to expect during regrowth.
How Chemotherapy Affects Hair
Chemotherapy drugs target and eliminate rapidly dividing cells, which is a characteristic of cancer cells. This targeting mechanism also impacts other fast-growing cells in the body, including those found in hair follicles. Hair follicles are complex structures with highly active matrix cells that constantly divide to produce hair strands.
When chemotherapy drugs damage these matrix cells, they disrupt the normal hair growth cycle, leading to hair thinning or loss. Additionally, these drugs can affect melanocytes, the specialized cells within hair follicles responsible for producing melanin, the pigment that gives hair its color. This can lead to changes in hair color when new hair regrows. The extent of hair changes varies depending on the specific chemotherapy drug, its dosage, and the individual patient’s response.
Expected Hair Color and Texture Shifts
Patients undergoing chemotherapy may experience specific changes in their hair’s color and texture. Hair color can return differently, with some individuals noticing their hair becoming grayer, lighter, or even a completely new shade. For instance, hair that was previously brunette might regrow with reddish or lighter hues. These color shifts occur because chemotherapy can damage the melanocytes, reducing melanin production.
In terms of texture, “chemo curls” are a common phenomenon, where previously straight hair grows back with a curly or wavy texture. This happens because chemotherapy temporarily alters the hair follicles, causing them to produce irregularly shaped hair strands. Hair may also become thicker, coarser, finer, or thinner than it was before treatment. These changes are due to the temporary impact of chemotherapy on hair follicle growth cycles.
Hair Regrowth and Long-Term Outlook
Hair typically begins to regrow a few weeks to a few months after chemotherapy treatment concludes. Initial regrowth might appear as fine, fuzzy hair, with more visible and thicker hair developing over several months. The first hair to grow back often differs from the hair present before treatment in both color and texture.
While these changes are often temporary, and hair may gradually return to its pre-chemo state, permanent alterations can occur for some individuals. For example, hair might remain gray or a different shade if melanocytes are permanently affected.
“Chemo curls” can last for varying lengths of time, with some individuals finding their hair eventually reverts to its original texture, while others experience lasting curliness. It can take 6 to 12 months, or even longer, after regrowth begins to assess the long-term texture and color. Understanding that the hair’s journey post-chemo is unique to each person can be helpful during this period.