Celebrity Hair Loss Due to Chemotherapy

It is one of the most well known side effects of chemotherapy, hair loss. The hair loss due to chemo varies for everyone. For some persons it is gradual loss over time, for others they lose their hair in clumps or almost all at once. However, whenever it happens, hair loss can be traumatic for anyone who had to deal with it. One can only image how difficult it can be for celebrities who are always in the public eye because of the paparazzi.

Why Chemotherapy Causes Hair Loss

The hair loss resulting from chemo is the result of the drugs used to destroy cancer cells. These drugs target both healthy as well as unhealthy cells. In the process hair follicles also get destroyed because the drugs kill fast dividing cells. Some chemotherapy drugs cause all body hair to go, while others only affect the hair on your head.

Some chemotherapy drugs known to cause hair loss include:

Ifosfamide
Doxorubicin also known as Adriamycin
Cytoxan
Taxol

Celebrities and Chemotherapy Hair Loss

A number of celebrities in recent times have had to battle cancer. Quite a few have lost the battle since 2009. One of the most well known has been actress Farrah Fawcett. Famous for her role in The Burning Bed and of course as one of Charlie’s Angels, Fawcett was also equally associated with her hair. Sadly, she reportedly lost her beautiful hair due to chemotherapy as her treatment progressed.

Singers Kylie Minogue and Melissa Etheridge also lost their hair while undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer. Minogue was first photographed with her very short hair as result of her treatment in 2006. Melissa Etheridge was proud to be photographed with her bald head as she worked to draw attention to the issue of breast and other cancers.

The ladies mentioned above showed their bald heads or low cut hair with pride and were still beautiful. Many other famous persons have had breast cancer and may well have lost their hair to chemo but kept it other wraps. Not only female celebrities lose their hair due to cancer treatments. For example, few persons know that actor Evan Handler’s bald look is a result of treatment for leukemia when he was just 24 years old.

Despite being warned and all the reading you do, one can never truly be prepared for the shock of being totally bald. Good support systems are needed to help someone remain upbeat not only when dealing with cancer but also with the associated hair loss.