It has been almost seven months since I first sprouted tiny, budding peach fuzz mohawk regrowth on the top of my little head. My hair is now long enough to straight iron, pin up, play with and otherwise "style" in a way that is sort of growing on me (although I still don't really recognize my own reflections in mirrors, there's probably a blogpost in their somewhere I'm sure.)
Anyways, in an instagram conversation (where I post probably hourly updates on my hair regrowth, forgive me, I am just delighted and I can't help myself) I had an exchange with another woman (and then stalked her instagram) who is also about the same time post-chemo I am, but does seem to have less hair than I do.
Now I'm sure part of this is genetics (remember during my first 4 rounds of A/C when my hair would grow back in fast enough to fall out again every 3 weeks - leading to horrible folliculitis and my inability to wear wigs/hats/scarves?Trust me I DO, I still have nightmares about it, but anyways...)
I keep reading about how hair is supposed to grow about 1/4 inch per month. My hair is definitely growing faster than that. In fact, my hair is about 5 inches long in places, which ends up being more like .714 inches a month or 5/7 inches a month if you want to be accurate (ha!)
Have I warmed you up enough? Do you want to know what I am doing?
Well, one of my nurses told me the only thing clinically proven to help regrow hair was Rogaine, and 2,000mgs of biotin everyday, so I stopped taking all those other expensive supplements I was taking. For the last 5 months or so I have just taken the Biotin (plus my fish oil, a pre-natal vitamin for my skin, B6 & glucosamine for my neuropathy, but none of those have been linked to hair regrowth, I'm just over sharing.) I also use Rogaine, which I also cleared with my doctors first, and which I was (OVERSHARING AGAIN) already using before hurricane cancer because male-pattern baldness runs in my family.
Now I am sure there are just oodles of factors that contribute to hair growth, but I have some other friends who have tried Biotin (without all that other stuff) and swear by it. Maybe I am just willing my hair to grow. Maybe the extensions have been pulling it out of my head faster. I have an incredible imagination.
So if you try it, let me know how it works for you!
XO
Dena, who is definitely obsessed with her hair and needs to stop blogging about it, and will soon, I promise