How to Cope with Hair Loss During Cancer Journey
- ‘Today Show’ host Jill Martin Brooks, 47, efforts at self-care get a bit emotional as she tries on wigs and eyelashes to help compensate for hair loss she’s experienced amid breast cancer treatment.
- She was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer. She’s since undergone chemotherapy and radiation therapy for treatment.
- Chemo can cause hair loss. It usually begins about three to four weeks after chemotherapy and continues throughout treatment. Most people can expect regrowth four to six weeks after treatment.
- If losing your hair is a concern for you before cancer treatment, know you have options like wigs, hats, wraps, and scarves, among other things, to maintain your self-esteem.
- Scalp cooling devices such as the one Brooks uses constrict the blood flow to the scalp; the caps limit the amount of circulating chemotherapy that reaches the hair follicles, protecting them from some of the chemo’s damaging effects.
Cancer survivors know this kind of pain. The popular “Today Show” host Jill Martin Brooks, 47, has published her hugely emotional response as she continues adjusting to the many facets of her breast cancer journey. She shared an Instagram story of herself shopping for wigs. The “Steals and Deals” guru admitted early on in her cancer journey that her hair meant a lot to her, so losing some of it during treatment has been an emotional blow.
Within the social media clip, she showed herself trying on a blonde wig that mirrored her natural hair color and looks.
Helping You Cope with Hair Loss During Treatment
Coping With Hair Loss from Cancer Treatment
Hair loss can be an emotional stage of anyone’s cancer journey. SurvivorNet has tips and resources for anyone facing this side effect and struggling to manage it.
“For cancer patients, losing one’s hair can be unbelievably stressful. To start with, the dread of losing one’s hair can lead to some sleepless nights and feelings of anxiety,” Dr. Samantha Boardman, a New York-based psychiatrist and author, told SurvivorNet.
Chemotherapy can cause hair loss. It usually begins about three to four weeks after chemotherapy and continues throughout treatment.
WATCH: Hair loss during chemo.
It happens because this treatment targets quickly dividing cells throughout the body. That includes cancer cells but also hair cells.
Radiation is another treatment that can lead to hair loss if the hair is in the path of the tumor being treated. For example, radiation for a brain tumor may cause hair loss on the head.
“If you do lose hair, it will regrow several weeks or months after treatment,” radiation oncologist at GensisCare Dr. James Taylor tells SurvivorNet.
“Fortunately, for most patients, hair loss is not a concern when having radiation therapy.”
Most patients can expect regrowth four to six weeks after treatment. However, it is possible when your hair grows back, you may notice some changes in its color and texture.
Dr. Boardman suggests connecting with others experiencing cancer treatment like yours and asking them for first-hand advice.
“Talk to people who have been through it, get their advice, voice your concerns to your caregiver, and see what they can do,” Dr. Boardman added.
If losing your hair is a concern for you before cancer treatment, know you have options like wigs, hats, wraps, and more.
Understanding Scalp Cooling Devices
Brooks’ wears a cold cap during infusions to help protect her hair follicles. Scalp-cooling devices have been approved by the FDA recently, first for breast cancer and then several other cancers.
That means wearing cold caps or special cooling caps before, during, and after each chemotherapy treatment.
The caps, which are tightly fitting and strap-on helmet-style, are filled with a gel coolant that’s chilled to between -15 to -40 degrees Fahrenheit.
Essentially, the caps “cause vasoconstriction, or a narrowing of the blood vessels bringing blood to the scalp,” Dr. Renata Urban, gynecologic oncologist at the University of Washington, explains.
By constricting the blood flow to the scalp, the caps limit the circulating chemotherapy that reaches the hair follicles, protecting them from some of the chemo’s damaging effects.
The cold also decreases the activity of the hair follicles, which slows down cell division and makes the follicles less affected by the chemotherapy medicine.
WATCH: What is a scalp-cooling device?
Dr. Julie Nangia, a medical oncologist at Baylor College of Medicine and a lead author on one of the major studies of the device, says 50% of women were able to keep their hair after four rounds of chemotherapy, and added: “Without the devices, 100% of patients lost their hair.”
There have been some safety questions when it comes to scalp-cooling, but Dr. Nangia says that when given to people with solid tumors (like breast, ovarian, colon, and lung cancer), the devices are safe.
Jill’s Brave Cancer Journey
The brave and resilient journalist was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer last year. Her diagnosis came shortly after she underwent genetic testing and learned she carried the BRCA gene mutation, which increased her chance of developing cancer, including breast and ovarian.
After Brooks learned she carried the BRCA gene, she planned to get a preventative mastectomy to minimize her cancer risk. The procedure Brooks attempted to pursue is a prophylactic or preventive mastectomy, which removes breast tissue to prevent cancer from developing. This procedure is an option for women at higher risk, such as Brooks, who carried the BRCA gene mutation.
WATCH: Understanding the BRCA Gene Mutation
As the “Steals and Deals” guru said previously, she’s undergoing an aggressive form of chemo called “the red devil.” This form of chemo involves anthracyclines, an adjuvant chemotherapy treatment given after surgery. Research published in JACC: CardioOncology says anthracyclines offer a “10% improvement in disease-free survival and a 7% improvement in overall survival, compared with the initial standard regimen of cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and 5-fluorouracil.”
Anthracycline and taxane (a class of chemotherapy drugs) have become a mainstay for breast cancer treatment. However, despite the effectiveness of these chemotherapy drugs, they come with intense side effects such as nausea, vomiting, and alopecia (hair loss), which helped give it its “red devil” nickname.
Brooks’ treatment also involved a double mastectomy (removal of both breasts), and she had 17 lymph nodes removed. She said she still has more treatment ahead of her with a hysterectomy to reduce her ovarian cancer risk further because of the BRCA gene mutation.
She recently hinted on an Instagram story that she is also nearing the end of radiation therapy.
Questions to Ask Your Doctor
If you’re going through cancer treatment and experiencing hair loss, here are some questions you may consider asking your doctor:
- Are there any treatments to help manage or minimize my hair loss?
- What are scalp-cooling devices, and how do they work?
- Do you recommend scalp-cooling devices?
- What other options are available to help me cope with hair loss?
- Can you recommend a wig maker?
- I’m struggling mentally with my hair loss; can you recommend a therapist to talk to?
- How can I find a local support group with people going through similar things?
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