Feminine hair loss sucks. Right here’s what occurred after I tried to develop mine again.

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I by no means appreciated how a lot I aspired towards typical hotness till I received most cancers and misplaced all my hair. As I underwent 12 rounds of chemotherapy in 2023 to deal with advanced-stage Hodgkin lymphoma, I turned measurably “uglier”: bald, muscle-free and inflated by steroids, with solely three eyelashes to my identify. The Mitski lyric “But when I gave up on being fairly, I wouldn’t know tips on how to be alive” involves thoughts.

Sarcastically, as my hair fluttered to the bottom like falling leaves throughout these early days of therapy, I noticed that the wild, oft-frizzy hair I’d spent my entire life tussling with was central to my look. I attempted my greatest to carry onto it.

Throughout my first few rounds of chemo, I opted to strive a comparatively new course of referred to as “chilly capping,” which is what it seems like. The affected person wears an ice-cold cap earlier than, throughout, and after chemo, and for some, it will possibly scale back the quantity of hair loss throughout therapy by up to 50 percent . (New York lately became the first state to mandate insurance coverage protection of scalp cooling; I needed to sink a bit of my GoFundMe to afford it.)

The cap is, sadly, a torture machine. Simply 15 seconds into my first therapy with the freezing helmet latched to my head and with six extra hours to go, the chilly was insufferable. I took extra Advil and Tylenol, and requested extra Ativan, too. An hour later the nurse returned with the benzos and started pumping me with 4 kinds of poison, as I shivered on probably the most miserable ground in Murray Hill.

As soon as I skilled the brutality of chemo, it turned unimaginable to elect further discomfort. The second I ended capping, the hair loss quickened, scaling down my wavy bob. Every single day I requested myself: Is as we speak the day I shave it? Would traditional bald look higher at this level? How for much longer can I cling to hair normalcy?

When I discovered clumps of hair caking the pillow on my hospital stretcher, I requested the emergency room physician to buzz it.

Why hair is a lot greater than that

In the course of the therapy, shedding my hair was upsetting, however I had greater issues, like most cancers and sepsis. The post-chemo hair regrowth course of — sluggish, uneven, patchy, lonely — has been extra gutting as a result of I’m purported to be regular now.

Greater than 80 million people within the US expertise hair loss. Along with affecting most cancers sufferers, hair loss can be a typical however not often talked-about facet impact of perimenopause and childbirth. Whereas baldness, thinning, and hairline woes are extra generally related to males, feminine sample hair loss is estimated to impact 40 p.c of ladies earlier than age 50. Hair loss in girls is more likely to be attributable to medical situations, medicines, or psychological misery. Throughout the board, it has a major impact on a affected person’s high quality of life, however girls are more likely to experience psychosocial problems consequently.

“Hair is deeply tied to our identification, confidence, and even how we simply transfer by the world.”

“Hair is deeply tied to our identification, confidence, and even how we simply transfer by the world,” Dr. Asmi Berry , a board-certified dermatologist in Los Angeles, says. “Our hair is without doubt one of the first issues that individuals discover. So when a affected person or anybody experiences hair loss, particularly after one thing life-altering like chemo or being pregnant or a extreme sickness, it’s not simply bodily. It may really feel such as you’ve misplaced part of your self and that has an emotional affect.”

Individuals usually get “chemo curls” after most cancers therapy: Their hair grows again thicker and curlier, typically in a unique coloration. My alleged curls sprouted up inconsistently on my head, as I used to be now anticipated to seek out work, love, and normalcy.

After I begged, my oncologist lastly referred me to a dermatologist on the most cancers hospital who prescribed me minoxidil (Rogaine), spironolactone (a coronary heart treatment that can help treat female pattern hair loss ), a scalp answer, and a military-grade anti-fungal shampoo that turns hair into straw. Neither the anti-fungal shampoo, which can be used to deal with athlete’s foot and ringworm, nor the topical answer are FDA-approved for hair loss, however have proven promise as adjunctive therapies and are amongst many instruments a dermatologist could use to assist a affected person.

<img alt="The top of a woman’s head shown on a doctor’s computer monitor" data-chromatic="ignore" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-nimg="fill" class="mvmjsc0" style="position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mN8+R8AAtcB6oaHtZcAAAAASUVORK5CYII='/%3E%3C/svg%3E")" sizes="(max-width: 639px) 100vw, (max-width: 1023px) 50vw, 700px" srcset="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/scalp-photo_dd785d.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=256 256w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/scalp-photo_dd785d.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=376 376w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/scalp-photo_dd785d.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=384 384w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/scalp-photo_dd785d.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=415 415w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/scalp-photo_dd785d.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=480 480w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/scalp-photo_dd785d.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=540 540w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/scalp-photo_dd785d.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=640 640w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/scalp-photo_dd785d.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=750 750w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/scalp-photo_dd785d.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=828 828w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/scalp-photo_dd785d.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1080 1080w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/scalp-photo_dd785d.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1200 1200w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/scalp-photo_dd785d.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1440 1440w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/scalp-photo_dd785d.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1920 1920w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/scalp-photo_dd785d.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2048 2048w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/scalp-photo_dd785d.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400 2400w" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/scalp-photo_dd785d.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400"/> An image of my scalp on the dermatologist. Courtesy of Maria Yagoda

Sadly for me, the expansion course of has remained slow-going. I’m grateful, although, that the dermatologist was keen to assist me strive — that she took my misery critically.

“It’s simply hair,” folks with an abundance of it inform me. “You’re rocking the quick look!” Think about if probably the most traumatizing factor that ever occurred to you have been seen in your physique, and other people made upbeat feedback about it. Once I lastly labored up the braveness to submit a wig-free photograph on my Instagram Tales, after over a yr of hiding, somebody instructed me I appeared like Stockard Channing’s Rizzo from Grease — the famously mid-30s actress taking part in a excessive schooler whose hair I hate.

The patchy science of hair regrowth

That is all to say, I’m not shocked that individuals go on hair plug vacations to Turkey . (“First cease is all the time Istanbul!” as they say ).

Sadly, there are few options for hair regrowth which might be assured to be efficient. “My recommendation is simply to search for remedies which might be backed by science and medical knowledge,” Berry says.

When folks ask Lindy Segal, a magnificence author and creator of the Gatekeeping e-newsletter, what hair development merchandise are “value it,” Segal’s reply is all the time the identical: minoxidil, also known as Rogaine . “It’s nonetheless the one FDA-approved ingredient for hair development in these assigned feminine at beginning,” Segal wrote in an e mail. Finasteride (Propecia) is the opposite FDA-approved treatment to deal with hair loss and sample baldness, however just for males. “There’s some analysis that red light therapy could boost hair growth , however a $45 bottle of Rogaine is a safer monetary wager than a $500 machine,” Segal says. “Lady math!”

And the lady math can add up: There are myriad dietary supplements and hair merchandise boasting substances like biotin, collagen, and zinc available on the market, and so they’re not all bogus. Oral biotin, for instance, is kind of secure to ingest and studies show it could help prevent hair loss — although there’s not sufficient analysis to indicate that it encourages development.

Once I first noticed my dermatologist, she first had me do a ton of bloodwork, to attempt to establish another root causes of each hair loss and sluggish regrowth (apart from, you recognize, 12 infusions of probably the most poisonous substances on Earth.) I used to be very low in zinc and vitamin B6 , each of that are essential for hair development, so she prescribed me dietary supplements for these, together with all the opposite drugs and potions we tried.

“I feel what’s actually essential in the entire dialog of hair loss is a root trigger strategy,” Berry says. “Determining, is the hair loss hormonal? Is there a dietary element? Stress-induced? Getting a complete analysis by a dermatologist can actually assist with avoiding wasted time, cash, and even hope on the improper path.”

Frustratingly, hair loss can be one thing that some docs outdoors dermatology are fast to dismiss, relating to it as an issue of self-importance. After giving beginning to her 2-year-old son, my buddy Alicia, a 35-year-old in North Carolina, watched in dismay as a lot of her hair got here out (Vox is just utilizing Alicia’s first identify so she will freely talk about a delicate medical concern). When she introduced the shedding as much as her major care doctor, the physician stated, “Oh, it seems effective to me!” and did not refer her to a dermatologist.

That’s the massive drawback within the wild world of hair regrowth: Most stuff can’t damage. However most likely can’t assist.

“It was only a fixed vanity bummer,” Alicia instructed me by way of textual content message. “I simply felt like irrespective of how I tied it again or what I did, I couldn’t get it to look good. And there’s no make-up or something you are able to do on your hair.”

The regrowth course of was lengthy, demoralizing, and costly. “I gave numerous my cash to Vegamour,” Alicia says. She thinks the Insta-friendly hair serum that accommodates turmeric, caffeine, and biotin helped, to some extent. Different well-advertised options that she purchased appeared much less efficient for her hair, together with development dietary supplements that contained biotin and acerola extract — a Brazilian fruit containing vitamin C that's supposed to assist increase collagen manufacturing.

That’s the massive drawback within the wild world of hair regrowth: Most stuff can’t damage. However most likely can’t assist. One web site selling Acelora as a hair supplement cites a 1954 examine on scurvy, the vitamin C deficiency that may trigger hair loss. I’m assuming, as we speak, most individuals’s hair loss is not scurvy-induced.

Like mine, Alicia’s algorithm is plastered with hair development adverts boasting doubtful claims. Certainly, it appears we live in a time of unprecedented claims about hair. “There’s numerous noise on the market and other people market in methods which might be actually psychologically triggering,” Berry says.

Segal has additionally noticed a definite uptick within the noise. “I’ve undoubtedly observed extra merchandise, manufacturers, and common protection focused to hair development for ladies in the previous couple of years,” she says. She suspects a few of it's associated to the pandemic. Certainly, research have indicated that roughly 20 p.c of people that had Covid-19 later developed momentary hair shedding, normally beginning a number of months after recovering.

It’s greatest to be cautious of any product that claims to regrow your hair “instantly” or “rapidly.” To not point out viral over-the-counter merchandise can’t allow you to with potential uncomfortable side effects: Nutrofol, for instance, can perpetuate liver injury .

I’ll admit that, out of desperation, I’ve tried well-marketed hair regrowth merchandise that aren’t what you would possibly name “vetted.” Natural oils, turmeric scalp elixirs, collagen powders, “density” shampoos and conditioners, serums. I’ve lived in fixed concern of extra hair falling out, so I rigorously ration hair brushing and washing, terrified to detach any extra strands than inevitable.

<img alt="A young woman taking a selfie in a bathroom mirror with freshly-styled hair" data-chromatic="ignore" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-nimg="fill" class="mvmjsc0" style="position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mN8+R8AAtcB6oaHtZcAAAAASUVORK5CYII='/%3E%3C/svg%3E")" sizes="(max-width: 639px) 100vw, (max-width: 1023px) 50vw, 700px" srcset="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/blowout-rotated_37f1f7.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=256 256w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/blowout-rotated_37f1f7.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=376 376w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/blowout-rotated_37f1f7.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=384 384w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/blowout-rotated_37f1f7.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=415 415w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/blowout-rotated_37f1f7.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=480 480w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/blowout-rotated_37f1f7.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=540 540w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/blowout-rotated_37f1f7.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=640 640w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/blowout-rotated_37f1f7.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=750 750w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/blowout-rotated_37f1f7.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=828 828w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/blowout-rotated_37f1f7.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1080 1080w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/blowout-rotated_37f1f7.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1200 1200w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/blowout-rotated_37f1f7.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1440 1440w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/blowout-rotated_37f1f7.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1920 1920w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/blowout-rotated_37f1f7.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2048 2048w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/blowout-rotated_37f1f7.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400 2400w" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/blowout-rotated_37f1f7.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400"/> My first post-chemo blowout. Courtesy of Maria Yagoda

A yr and a half after ending therapy, I labored up the braveness to get my first blowout, which might contain brushing, washing, scrubbing, and hair blowing. The stylist confirmed me her comb and her palms after massaging my head. “See? Solely a pair hairs got here out, which is regular,” she stated. I’d anticipated a wig’s value. The blowout appeared fairly, if skinny. The various lengths, attributable to uneven regrowth, appeared like cool, uneven layers.

Patrice Grell Yursik, creator of the hair and wonder weblog Afrobella , was recognized with a number of myeloma in January 2024. After bone marrow biopsies and weeks of hospitalization, she had a stem cell transplant, adopted by chemotherapy, and she or he misplaced all her hair.

Yursik can be within the regrowth section. I requested her if she’d tried something to encourage the method.

“My oncologist may be very cautious of the wellness trade and doesn’t suggest any further dietary supplements or hair development medicines for me presently,” she wrote in a message, including that she couldn’t chilly cap as a result of her sort of most cancers is situated within the bone marrow, “so we didn’t wish to mainly refrigerate my cranium whereas I used to be attempting to heal.”

“I’ve tried a number of topical merchandise, particularly scalp oils meant to stimulate development,” she says. “My hair is rising again tremendous thick and coily on the roots, and it's completely fascinating. For somebody who made a lot of her identify and identification round hair, it has been an surprising training in studying to like myself at each stage of my new journey.”

For the remainder of my life, I’ll have fewer hairs than I did earlier than I received sick. No product will change that, and perhaps that’s simply effective. However I’ll preserve looking, simply in case.