Hi Simple Gifts,

I had a beard when I started, and first the beard under my jaw disappeared, then the beard on my lower cheeks fell out in a spotty manner. I had radiation to both sides of my neck, about a week more on the left than on the right.

On the back of my head, I lost hair on both sides starting about mid-ear (the hair loss was like two circles so that I had a little bit of a widow's peak in the middle).

I'm 6+ months out, and I have grown a goatee. I shave every day, and the facial hair on my cheeks seems to have come back quite a bit, but below my jaw my beard is just a few hairs here and there (i.e., it hasn't come back much).

On the back of my head, the hair has come back quite a bit, but it's finer and not as thick as it was pre-radiation. The thinning is progressive, i.e. it's thicker at the top and thins out towards my neck, where my hair is almost gone similar to the facial hair below my jaw. Even though it's quite thinned out toward my neck, my new hair is thick enough that I can cut a hairline below my ears. I don't keep close track of it to know if it seems to be getting any thicker. I wear my hair very short, kind of a long crewcut, so there's not much overlapping hair to grow over the newer hair.

Best wishes,

Chris