Hair loss and capecitabine

Hi Enieledam,

Welcome back to the Macmillan Online Community.  I can see that you have joined a few different forums and I really hope you are finding them supportive and helpful.

I’m Adrienne, one of the Cancer Information Nurse Specialists at Macmillan.

Let me start by saying that it’s not a trivial question to ask.  When you are going through treatment for a cancer diagnosis, how you feel about your appearance can affect and increase your well-being.  It’s therefore good to understand what you can do to help with this and what should be avoided.

Oral capecitabine is a chemotherapy drug.  Even though you may not have had any hair loss or just had some hair thinning, it can still damage the shaft of the hair.  If you were to add a harsh chemical like peroxide to your hair, this could cause further damage, make your hair much thinner and irritate your scalp.

There are other temporary or semi-permanent hair colours that your salon could use but they would want to ensure that your scalp and hair are both healthy and a patch test is carried out prior to colouring your hair. 

It’s always best to talk to your oncology team before having your hair coloured, just so they can advise what’s best for you.

My New Hair has information on colouring your hair which you may find helpful to look at (Page 33 onwards).  They also have a salon finder to look for stylists who have more advanced training in cutting/colouring hair during and after cancer treatment.

I hope this was helpful but please know that you can give one of our nurses a call to talk things through further.

Take care and best wishes,

Adrienne

Cancer Information Nurse Specialist 

You can also speak with the Macmillan Support Line team of experts. We are available on 0808 808 0000 (7 days a week, 8am-8pm) or send us an email. 

Ref:  AMc/HM