Hi All,

I am now 8 wks post IMRT. The entire left side of my face is as smooth as a baby's bottom.. Unfortunately, I have really dark hair and the right side of my face did not receive rad. therefore my facial hair remains intact on that side. I sort of feel like two face from Batman.

Anyways, my question is: When, if at all, did your facial hair begin to grow again once Tx was finished. I have never really been body/image conscious until now. The stares, glances, and comments are starting to get to me. If it seems like my facial hair will never return then I am going to get the remaining hair lasered off. Of course I am going to give it a lot of time before I move forward with that procedure. With my luck, I will have the right side lasered and the left will begin to grow again.

Any info./help will be greatly appreciated.

Gary

If you didn't have chemo most of the hair in the radiation field will be gone for good. My follicles actually fell out on my neck. I have a moustache and goatee and it recovered pretty good but the hair on my neck is toast- except for a few survivors here and there.

I am 3 years post and still have little hair on my right (rad) side along my jaw. It will never come back.

I have dark hair as well. unless you are planning on growing a beard, it's not a big deal considering.

Gary S;
I'm sure it was a combination of rad/chemo but I lost all my facial hair through treatment. I didn't shave at all after about a month into treatment and even after treatment the only hair growing back was up by my ears. Now, about three months out I have my moustache back, almost as thick as it was, but my goatee is gone. I do have some whiskers starting to pop out around my chin though. Like you, my entire neck area is totally smooth. Folks staring and commenting don't have a clue to the path you have walked and that is their issue. My thought is if it grows back that's nice. If not it sure doesn't affect my breathing!

Best of Luck,

Steve

I'm a little over 3 months out of Tx. I lost all hair on my neck, face (except for half a moustache) and on the back of my head. The hair on my face grows enough now that I have to shave again, to include my moustache. The hair on the back of my head is coming back slowly. Still no hair on my neck.

Tim

Gary S - I was so glad to see your post and have thought of you often, ever since that day in the Rad waiting room when my son and I talked with you. You are the reason we found the OCF site and have benefited so much from it and from your caring concern for us as my son was going thru Rad tx. You are such a handsome young man but your beautiful soul and your compassion for others are way more important. Try not to worry about the stares and comments - that's their problem. The lost hair is your badge of courage. My son, Paul - is 4 wks post treatment and he is also concerned about the spaces at the back of his neck. He shaves his whole head almost every day. But as Steve says, it doesn't affect his breathing. Paul is making great progress! And I hope you continue to do so as well. I love your attitude and as you say, there is always laser surgery.

I lost the hair on my neck and back of the head. The back of the head grew back almost normal about 6-9 mos because that radiation beams were from the front. The front of my neck the direct area of the beams never grew back. It makes shaving quick now!

Hi All,

Thanks for the responses. I suppose I had just reached a boiling point the day I posted. Three dumb-ass comments from complete strangers in one day was a little too much. Thanks for helping me readjust my perspective. There are so many other things to be happy about that I do not need to worry about this.

Annette - I am glad to hear that Paul is progressing well. I think of you two often. Please know that I will always be here for the both of you if you need me. I look forward to more progress updates.

Gary

Gary S,

I lost the hair on my neck below my chin and on the back of my neck where the rad exited. I am now 4 months post Tx. The hair follicles also fell out as Gary posted. My remaining wiskers also darkened up for a while but they now seem back to normal. I would shave at 8am and by 10am I had a shadow which was wierd but as I said that is back to normal now. The hair on the back of my neck is returning but not the wiskers on my neck under my chin EXCEPT 3 or 4 that grow to 1 inch before I see them.

Razors and a can of shaving cream lasts a lot longer now, but that was some price I had to pay for that benefit!!

I have worn a full beard all my life....no more. Hair on left side of my face is gone, right side still grows. Being self-employed outta home, sometimes I don't need to shave for 3 or 4 days - then I'll go by the mirror & see 1/2 beard & realise I've been going out to places like that. Guess if people see me from right side I have a beard, from left I don't....lol.

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

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

Steve,

I agree that it is better than the alternatives. It is strange but each day I have a couple new follicles as my beard tries to grow back. In some ways I feel like a teenager again, checking every day and hoping for my facial hair to grow. Thankfully that is the only way I feel like a teenager again. Those are some years I would never want to re-live, especially 13 to 16 years old. UGH!

By the way Steve, congratulations as you approach your one year anniversary. In some ways I consider the day that I finished treatment as the day I was reborn so it will be more of a birthday rather than an anniversary for me. I plan on celebrating that time by running a marathon (my 5th). How does everyone else choose to commemorate those milestones? I would be interested to know if you choose a private affair or if you will tell everyone you know and celebrate. I do not think there is any right way to proceed. I am just curious.

I hope everyone is doing well and I look forward to any replies.

Gary

Well, in my case my last radiation treatment was on the day before my official birthday, so they are pretty much one and the same.

I celebrated by having my first PET/CT scan, taking the disk home, putting it in the laptop and scaring myself half to death by looking at the lit-up spots all over my body!! Holy Hotspots, Batman!

Especially the one that I thought was my prostate, glowing like Chernobyl on a moonless night! (Immediate thoughts of heading on down to the Radiation Center for a series prostate burns started running through my head, so I started counting my blessings, like not getting lost on the way, not needing introductions to the staff, not needing that dang mask, etc.).

A quick consult with an anatomy chart in a book revealed Chernobyl to be my bladder, where the radioactive stuf was deposited after normal processing; further consult with the book and laptop convinced me that at least it wasn't likely that I have a prostate cancer problem because there were no glowing zones on that organ, unlike my brain and other parts.

I must say that it was a worrisome wait for the results of the radiologist's reading of the scans to reveal that all was well!

I think I will endeavor to do something less stressful on Anniversary #2...