After my diagnosis, it took a few months before I really started noticing that my hair was thinning. I started seeing more clumps in by the shower drain and more strands in my hands after a shower. The texture had changed as well. I used to have thick, full, straight hair. After years of being in menopause and on treatment, it’s dry, brittle and frizzy/curly.

Some say it’s due to the Ibrance and others say it’s Letrazole. I am no longer on Letrazole and my hair still sucks so I doubt it’s Letrazole. I’ve read elsewhere that menopause in general wreaks havoc on your hair.

Regardless of the culprit, it does seem to be a pretty common complaint for breast cancer folks like me. But what people seem to do about it seems to vary. Here are a few things I’ve seen discussed on the metastatic breast cancer groups:

• Shave it off – yep, go full chrome dome. Not for me, but some swear by it 🙂
• Short cut – If your hair is thinning, sometimes a nice short cut can give the appearance of fuller hair.
• Nioxin 4 System – I briefly tried this but didn’t notice any big difference.
• Coconut Oil – rub in once a month
• Biotin supplements – not tried this and the science is a bit mixed.
• Hair extensions
• Keratin treatments – I had one of these and it only last a month or so. Treatments I had prior to my medications used to last for 3 months. Still, it’s another option to hep with the frizziness.

Below is what my hair looked like after just a year on Ibrance and Letrazole: my scalp thinned a little as you can see below. I’ve also developed a bit of a wave in my hair that wasn’t there before and the texture is drier:

After trying many different things, I’ve found that the Drybar Double Shot Oval Blow Dryer Brush can create the nicest effect quickly on my hair. It’s a bit pricey (I got mine on Prime Day so it was half off) but seeing how well it works, I’d probably pay full price for it if I had to. Below is the result of using it on my super curly wet hair in about 15 minutes:

Eyebrows

My eyebrows have always been on the bushy side so although I think they have thinned, I still have plenty. I’ve heard from many that have lost most, if not all, of their eyebrows on some of the medications used to treat metastatic breast cancer.

One popular technique mentioned is microblading. This is a tattoo technique that fills brows out or reshapes them by drawing on tiny lines that look like individual hairs. Below is a before/after example of microblading:

Anything else you’ve had success with?