Harleydude - I loved your post! Maybe you will start a new style trend!

I went into the nuke zone with a beard (had it for 35 years) and emerged with a mustache and goatee, plus I need to shave the upper parts of my cheeks -- The rest is more or less gone, altho after one year I am getting some sporadic growth of little, puny hairs that aren't exactly robust and are easy to pull out.

Consider having the undamaged side of your face depiliated with laser treatment if the comments from strangers are a bother <grinz>

Or just come up with some snide comments for those who don't know any better, like "I started this paid testing by Gillette and have to finish it as part of my parole terms but I'm starting to really miss being inside...".

I LOVE IT! Pete, I'd go with your comment, absolutely. I've had a moustache since I was 15. During rad, it took on a "different" look...the left side lost the dark whiskers first, then the grey ones. Before long, I had a "half-stache".

Since it went well with the loss of hair on the left side of my head, I just left it all as it was.

Since my fibula removal left me with a walking limitation, I use a Segway to get around. I was quite a sight; me on my Segway, handicapped placard on the bars,no hair on the left side of my head, half a moustache, and this big ole scar on my face and neck.

I found it hilarious; people just about tripping over themselves to open doors, then watching them realize I looked very "different" and then tripping over themselves trying to look anywhere but at me.

The moustache has come back for the most part, and the hair on my head is almost back to normal. The whiskers on my left cheek and neck are gone for good. That's O.K....wasn't planning on growing a beard again anyway. The last time I did, it was more white than dark, and that was just depressing.
Wayne

HI Al,

Thanks for the encouraging stories. I like the comment about being on parole. I will have to add that to my bag of comebacks.

Interestingly enough, some of my facial hair has started to grow back. It is starting on the edges and creeping in. Everyday I notice a few more whiskers. Every morning, in front of the mirror, I excitedly point out the new whiskers to my wife and she more or less just rolls her eyes at me. Perhaps my level of enthusiasm is a little too much at 6:15 am. HA! I mentally give them a pep talk as they try to repopulate the fallout zone.


Gary

That's great news, Gary! And keep up the enthusiasm! Next time you recognize any more volunteers in the fallout zone, jump up and down and yell "Hurray for my side!"

I feel like I'm watching an old 3 stooges clip when there were 3 different sets of stooges and every time one set left the room another set appeared.----Just how many Garys and Amys are out there anyway and if I change my name will my survival rate go up because ther are a lot of you.
The more the merrier.
Always,
Mark D.

Hi Gary,

I had radiation on both sides of the neck/jaw and from the front on the neck. For a while, you could see where the radiated section was as it was a nicely defined reactangle. In time it started to grow back but at a slower rate than the areas which did not receive radiation. Don't know if the HBO treatments helped any on the hair regrowth, but just like everything else about the treatment and recovery, everyone reacts differently. Best advise I can give is give it some time and in a year see where you are.

Jim

Starting to realize that I was "fortunate" enough to have symmetrical XRT so my face is the same on both sides re: hair!

I once fell in a consruction accident and broke one side of my face -- That side swelled up incredibly, sticking out inches from below my eye, and then turned all sorts of wierd colors.

I had to sit in the hospital for a couple of days, waiting for the swelling to go down, after which they operated and then it swelled up again. Rude looky-lous walking by the room would stare in and see the normal side of my face, so I would quickly turn so they were also seeing the really unusual, very ugly and distorted side -- It was a real hoot to watch them rapidly turn away, having seen a lot more than they bargained for!

You take your amusement where you find it <grinz>.

Pete, you crack me up.

That is the same sense of humor that I used to get me through the radiation. Like when people would ask me about the redness or purpleness as it got towards the end, I'd just say, yeah, the tanning bed screwed up and watch their reactions.

I too was lucky that they radiated both sides and the hair loss was temporary but symetrical.

Jim

The end of May will be one year post tx for me. I lost most of the hair on the sides of my jaw and all of it under the jawline/chin. It hasn't come back - still smooth. I don't like not being able to grow it out a little but I always try to remember it's better than the alternatives. Best of luck.
-Steve

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SCC tongue base, too big for surgery. Cisplatin x 3 and IMRT x 35, spring 2006.