An after-affect of chemotherapy, occurring when hair grows back.
"I look like i have a lamb's skin on my head!"
—grundoon, when her hair began growing back.
Christine had started chemotherapy some time before we were married back in May 2005. Her hair really began to fall out noticeably the day we were married. She said she looked like a mangy dog; I disagreed, she looked perfectly beautiful to me. in any case, for some time after we were married, she was totally bald. And by bald, i mean everything, not just her head. She was most upset by the loss of her eyebrows. "I look like a lizard!", she once said to me. But in time, after she finished her chemo, her hair began to grow back, but no-one had warned us about what would happen next. We were expecting her hair to grow back as it had been, a thick flowing straight brunette with a fetching grey streak. To our enormous surprise, her first hair growth seemed to be blonde and fine, and as time went on, it was evident that it was curly. It grew fast though, and we just reckoned that this was just her hair reverting to babyhood, getting in training for the long haul. She had fine, soft lamby curls, and while they were pretty, they weren't Christine's hair as we were all used to, and she was tiring of my lamb-related pet names. In time, her hair thickened and grew darker and straighter, until the point came when she was ready to lose the lamb-locks of her chemo curls, and i was dispatched to fetch my clippers and remove the curls for good. Somewhere there's a photo of me brandishing the clippers with a fiendish look on my face. I'll try to dig it out and share it with you later. Meanwhile, we were none the wiser as to what had caused her hair to rebel against nature. Until today, when i decided to put the mystery to rest. Here is what i found out about hair:
The Why of curly hair
Hair curls due to the shape and structure of the hair follicle and the distribution and structure of the keratin protein that forms a good deal of the structure of a hair. Apparently, if the follicle is oval or asymmetrical, the hair tends to grow in a spiral or a curve; contrariwise, round follicles produce straighter hairs because the hair can grow evenly. The shape of follicles is in part determined by genetics (Tessie's hair, like her mother's, is quite straight). in addition, the distribution of the structural keratin has an affect, depending on the nature of the chemical bonds in the molecules: Hydrogen bonds are weaker bonds that form between molecules in the hair. They can be temporarily broken by water or heat, which is why straightened or curled hair can change shape. Disulfide bonds are stronger, sulfur-based bonds that connect the hair's keratin strands and play a key role in determining whether hair is straight or curly. In curly hair, these bonds form at uneven intervals, causing the hair to bend and twist.
The How
So how does chemotherapy affect this? Well, while aimed at targeting faster-growing cancer cells, chemotherapy can also affect the body's faster-growing healthy cells, including those responsible for hair growth. Killing off skin cells and hair follicles can cause issues as the body recovers and rebuilds itself, leading to changes that are often reflected in the hair. For some people the chemo curls are temporry, follicls recover and normal hair growth rsumes. For ohers, th curls may last much much longer. it's a lottery as are so many cancer-related things =\
Hormonal changes can also affect how hair grows, and you can bet that chemo plays merry hell with the endocrine system as well as the cancer. Mystery resolved!
for weroland, who has this to go through. Pour one out for everyone undergoing chemo, it's a tough row to hoe.
$ xclip -o | wc -w
570