why do we lose our hair?

Despite recent medical advances, chemotherapy remains a widely used treatment for many cancer cases. It consists of administering by infusion a mixture of drugs whose composition depends on the type of cancer to be treated. When this mixture contains so-called cytostatic drugs, several side effects occur, including alopecia.

–

Why ?

Cytostatics attack cancer cells and at the same time inhibit cell proliferation, which is necessary for the tumor to grow. What makes these drugs effective cancer treatments. But they also indiscriminately attack other cells.

As a result, this treatment also affects healthy cells, including the rapidly dividing cells responsible for hair growth in hair follicles. This is why these chemotherapies result in hair loss, but also all integuments such as eyelashes and eyebrows, pubic and axillary hair, beard …

–

A systematic effect?

No, not all patients are equal when it comes to this side effect. “The importance of alopecia depends on several factors, in particular, the type of drug or the combination of drugs used, the dose administered, the number of chemotherapy courses, the quality of the hair, the age. », Specifies the National Cancer Institute.

In any case, hair loss, when it occurs, usually begins 15 days to 3 weeks after the first infusion. Sometimes hair loss is preceded or accompanied by pain or tingling in the scalp.

Sudden or progressive onset, this hair loss is always temporary. Hair begins to grow again approximately 6 to 8 weeks after treatment is finished.

–