Chemo After Lung Cancer 2 Years Ago – I Lost Most Of My Hair

I had lung cancer and my last chemo treatment was in July of 2012. I finished radiation in October December 2012. I had some balding prior to the Chemotherapy that you might classify as a Norwood Class 6 pattern, but there was still hair throughout the head. It was just thinning. It has been almost two years and now my hair loss pattern is very clear and all of the thinning hair has not come back. I have a few sparse hairs all over my head, but they are very sparse. I am off my medications at this time. Will my hair come back and what can I do to help it. I have used Nioxin for two years and just recently started uses minoxidil. Are there vitamins to help? Just what can I do?

I do not know how to help you. You clearly had male pattern balding that was not complete and the chemotherapy stressed your fine, miniaturized hairs and finished the balding process in them. One of our patients had used the ‘Cold Cap’ when the took Chemotherapy and lost less than half of the hair. Few doctors are aware of this treatment. At this stage, I believe that you can expect that hair regrowth will not occur. We have a treatment that may be worth looking at, called Scalp Micropigmentation (scalpmicropigmentation.com). Many patients convert from a Class 6 or 7 pattern to a full looking head of hair by taking on a shaved look. Just like the star of Breaking Bad, many men look great with the shaved look and your case does parallel the main character’s appearance. This is something to consider. Many times I ask myself if SMP was available when I started to treat my hair loss, would I have chosen this option. The answer is yes, but at my age, this is not something that I would do considering that my hair loss is gone and my hair transplants were 100% successful in addressing by large crown loss.