It took a few months before I really started noticing that my hair was thinning. 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 hair. Now, it’s dry and has an odd wave to it.
Some say it’s due to the Ibrance and others say it’s the Letrazole. Regardless of which one is the culprit, it does seem to be a pretty common side effect for these medications. 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 just started hearing about this one and am giving it a try.
- 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.
After a little over a year on Ibrance and Letrazole, my scalp is 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 a bit drier:
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?