Just because you are living with breast cancer, that doesn’t mean that you have to look like it. You may experience a lot of physical, mental and emotional stress when living with breast cancer, but trust and believe, this doesn’t have to stop you from looking your best even if you may not feel it. Honestly, sometimes your physical appearance will help you feel better on the inside and give you a boost of happiness. This is because there is evidence that your confidence is boosted when you look good. How you look, especially when it involves your hair, can literally turn your whole day around.
Facts About Breast Cancer And Hair
It’s true that when you are living with breast cancer it can affect your hair and your life in many ways. Most of the time it’s due to the treatments and chemotherapy that you go through that can cause significant hair loss. Certain treatments cause different effects to your hair.
For example, when going through radiation therapy, radiation only causes hair loss to the specific area that is being treated. If you are getting radiation for your breast then the only hair loss you may experience is around the nipple.
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Hormonal therapy treatments used to treat breast cancer cause mild to moderate hair loss and hair thinning around the edges, crown or middle part of your hair.
Since it’s mostly thinning of the hair, you might not notice hair loss for months or even a year after while on this treatment.
Targeted therapy causes hair loss and changes in the color and texture of your hair. Noticeable hair loss usually occurs right after you start this type of treatment and takes months after you stop taking it to grow back.
Chemotherapy also causes hair loss on the head and other areas of the body (eyebrows, eyelashes, arms, legs, etc.). It’s not the cancer itself that causes hair loss but the treatments to fight and destroy it that do.
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How To Handle Hair Loss
Though some may see it as just hair, that might not be the case for everyone. Losing your hair due to cancer treatments can be traumatizing and though using the word traumatizing might seem like a stretch, it’s true. It’s a drastic and sudden change and can even be