OK, so chemotherapy makes your hair fall out.  But when does it start to grow back?  I looked on-line and talked to a lot of people as I was going through chemotherapy so I could start to plan for the days when I had hair again.  The answer was invariably the same – everyone is different.  I hate that answer.  I was not looking for an exact date, just some idea about the timing….was it going to be 3 months, 6 months, or, God forbid, a year before I could be seen in public without a hat.

Here is what experienced and hopefully this will help you.

By the time of my last chemotherapy treatment on January 10, 2013, I had no hair.  My chemo cycle was three weeks long so I knew that no hair would even begin to grow until at least three weeks following that last treatment.  Slowly it did come in but it didn’t come in uniformly.  By my birthday, two months later (March 13), I had what I would consider a little boy’s buzz cut – so my head was covered for the most part, but the hair was only about a half inch long.  By the end of April, I returned to the office sans hat.  The hairdo wasn’t the most becoming…more like a little boy’s parted comb over but it was OK.  I could be seen without feeling like I looked like a cancer patient.

I am now 5+ months following my last chemotherapy treatment.  My hair is still short but definitely getting longer (it is about an inch and a half now).  It is really curly too.  I had curly hair before but I don’t think it was this curly.  I did hear from most people I spoke with that your hair will grow back curlier than before.  A friend of mine had pin-straight hair and after chemotherapy, she had a nice wave to her hair – she is delighted.

So, if you are in the midst of chemotherapy, hang in there, your hair will grow back within a couple of months.  It doesn’t feel like you will ever get there but you will!!!