24th July - Hair today, gone tomorrow

One of the all but certain side effects I know I'll have to encounter is a complete loss of the hair on my head.  I've read a lot around this and found that it's likely to happen around two to three weeks after I started treatment, so I've probably got around two weeks (best case) before it starts falling out.

To help try and make losing my hair slightly more bearable, I've decided to shave my head first so I feel like I'm in control of what's going on.  Whilst my hair will still fall out, at least I won't need to worry about big clumps disappearing and I'll already be used to seeing the shape of my head so it won't come as such a big surprise.

So here's my new look.....

I must say I was quite impressed with the results!  I think part of me had always wanted to know what I'd look like with a buzz cut (yes, that's what it's called!) but I'd never had the bottle to follow through with it.  At least I know that when my hair slowly starts to grow back (hopefully 6 or so weeks after I finish chemo), that I'll be happy to keep it very short if it does start to grow back in a weird way - which often happens apparently.

Some people's hair grows back thicker or thinner, a different colour, or even curly when they've previously had straight hair.  It sounds like it could be a bit of a lottery.