Hair-loss often occurs as a side effect due to cancer and its treatment. They can be quite emotionally distressing and lose your self-esteem. By proper understanding and preparation, this can be conquered and tolerated.
Hair-loss occurs when hair falls out from the follicles that are present in the pores of skin. Usually when they fall off new ones are replaced in its place. If any sort of damage happens to the follicles, then hair growth can be stopped either temporarily or permanently. Usually cancer does not lead to follicle damage or hair loss. Its treatments often lead to hair loss.
The cancer treatments that lead to hair-loss are chemotherapy and radiations. In chemotherapy, very powerful and strong drugs are heavily pumped into the body to act against the cancer cells. These drugs have many side effects. They lead to the destruction of healthy hair cells and follicles. In radiation treatment, high energy rays are used to destroy the cancer cells, by focusing the rays upon them. It causes hair loss when the rays are used for the treatment of cancer cells on the scalp of head or the follicles.
The amount of hair lost due to these treatments can vary from person to person. It depends upon the intensity of treatment. In certain cases hair loss is a sudden reaction while in certain others it’ll take time. In some cases hair from both the head and scalp is lost. In some other cases, hair of the head might be lost completely while in some other cases can be in patches. In chemotherapy hair loss begins after 2-3 weeks of the commencement of treatment. In radiation treatment, hair loss begins after the 1st treatment itself. Read the full story
