Chemo baldness in women: Wigs, scarves, or what?

[BelfastBloke]

Enquiring about the options for a friend. Don't really know if there's a general consensus, or general approach?

Hope chemotherapy works ...

Good luck to your friend. When my friend had chemo she wore a wig out and a scarf/beanie at home. Her wig was great and she moaned that it was going to be the only time in her life she didn't have to worry about having bad hair days!

Whatever makes your friend feel good...
Wigs may be itchy- esp in early stages after chemo; there are specialists that your friend can get hold of via hospital/ chemo nurse.
And scarves are really in this season. I'd say it'd be a good reason to invest in a gorgeous fashion- envy silk scarf or two. Meg Mathews is doing stuff for liberty at the moment and very cool and nice against sore skin.
Good luck!

My (very trendy) friend had 2 amazing wigs. She was recommended them by a nurse at the hospital.
One of them she even had cut by a hairdresser when she wanted to go shorter

She also wore some beautiful scarves. Think she tried some hats but some of the beany style ones were itchy.

Hope your friend is ok.

I suggested to her it might be cool to have two or three radically different styles of wigs: not hiding the fact that they ARE wigs, but changing them as you would change an outfit. Or to go with an outfit.

Easier to do as a woman, I suspect. Total clothing rights, as Eddie Izzard says.

But maybe the cost of decent ones are prohibitive?

As others have said, wigs can be a bit hot and itchy, so most people save them for going out - either choosing the same as their normal hair or the style they have always wanted.

Theres a few companies selling scarves and beanies - some people find a scarf stays on better with a little cotton cap underneath. If her hospital runs Look Good, Feel Better sessions, there will be someone showing lots of ideas on how to tie scarves. The nursing staff will have the details on the local wig service too.

Trevor Sorbie has a charity called My New Hair which trains hairdressers to cut wigs nicely, and is worth checking out

My friend had a wig for special occs when she had chemo last year, but she wasnt overly comfy with it. I bought her scarves but again, she wasnt comfy with them. SO she wore baseball caps.
We jazzed them up with little sequinny bits just to stop them being boring.

BB - I never had a wig when I had chemo - its a very personal thing, some people want one some don't. Hospitals will provide wigs.

I had some soft cotton beanies, (Kind to skin and warm, to wear in bed. Having no hair is very cold!)

Sometimes I wore scarves tied in various ways, or wide headbands. Sometimes I just went bald.

If there is a big 'c' centre at your friend's hospital, they often do sessions where you can try out different headcoverings, and get suggestions. Also her chemo unit should give her advice.

Another point is that some people find it slightly less traumatic, if they have their hair cut short before starting treatment, then its not quite so drastic when it comes out.

There are various websites which specialise in chemo headgear here for instance - ignore the rather odd plastic headed models.

best of luck to your friend.

my friend wore a variety of beautiful hermes scarves when she was bald from her chemo, she also got some funky hats from accessorise but wore them over the scarf on cold days. She had a very expensive wig made but hardly wore it as they are so hot and itchy

My friend had a wig that was quite cool. I'm not sure whether or not she had to pay for it. She just went bald at home most of the time. Turbans can be very nice too. My friend's chemo was a success and she's fine. Hope everything goes well for you guys.

My mum wore scarves; a wig wasn't an option at the time and she didn't feel comfortable with one. On the other hand, she was used to wearing scarves in the sunshine to help look after her dyed hair and also to cover up roots when it was due to be done.

A good hairdresser can also help a lot to make use of hair that doesn't fall out by recommending a good haircut/style and can also help in terms of looking after the new growth.

I would say your friend needs to figure out what will work and be comfortable and enjoyable be it wig/scarf/headwear or very short haircut. Maybe go along for support and to help try new things - another person's perspective can be helpful.

Hope all goes well with the treatment.

I think you get vouchers to buy wigs. Maybe try and book her onto Look good fell better

This site is cool, do a whole range worn by cool surfer dudettes camping last summer who didn't want to faff.

Thank you all, these links are excellent. It's sad how that knowledge must have been accquired.

Hi

Just as an aside, I heard a feature on woman's hour about one of the top hairdressers who has a bit of a specialism in cutting wigs for chemo patients (could it be Vidal Sassoon perhaps? Bet it would come up on a goodle search) and is training hairdressers nationwide to do the same. Apparantly they look amazing and he did mention that it's important to go to someone who has had some training in wig cutting as it's totally different from cutting a normal hairstlye.

As another aside, my best friend had chemo (and now she's fine, by the way) and had a wig made but did not have to use it as they used a cold cap on her (it diverts blood away from the skull) and so her hair thinned but only a little. It may be worth your friend asking her chemo nurse about this?

Best of luck to your friend