Do You Lose Your Eyebrows With Chemo?

June 4, 2024 by Mani Pandey

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Chemotherapy treatment is given to patients battling cancer. It is one of the effective ways to fight off cancer cells. People who respond well to the treatment can defeat cancer and lead a healthy life.

However, when you get chemotherapy, hair loss comes as one of its side effects. Luckily, the hair grows back over time, but when you are getting the therapy, you may have to live with a bald scalp.

Article Contains

Variation Among Individuals
Timing of Eyebrow Loss
Temporary Loss
Support
Recovery

While hair loss in the scalp is common, some people ask, do you lose your eyebrows with chemo? The straightforward answer to this is yes; it is highly likely to experience brows hair falling along with hairs in other parts of the body such as the nose, underarms, pubic area, etc.

Let’s find out the relation between chemo and eyebrow hair loss.

Why Does Eyebrow Hair Fall Off with Chemo?

The medications or drugs used in chemotherapy are very strong (1). As cancer cells rapidly divide and multiply in the body, spreading constantly, the drugs cease their growth and multiplication.

Chemo drugs aim on rapidly diving cells in the body among which cancer cells are the major target (2). However, every other cell which is dividing and multiplying rapidly comes under the umbrella and it includes cells of hair follicles too. As a result, hair stop emerging out from the follicles and their proliferation into different growth stages (anagen, catagen and telogen) terminate.

Since most of the body hair are present on the scalp, hair thinning and baldness become highly prominent in it. The rest of the body parts where hair grows are equally affected due to these drugs.

Patients undergoing chemotherapy can experience hair thinning and hair loss in eyebrows. Below are some key points that explain eyebrow loss during chemotherapy-

1. Variation Among Individuals

It is not necessary for every patient to undergo the same level of hair thinning of eyebrows due to chemo. While some can lose most of their eyebrow hair, others may experience minimal thinning (3). It depends upon the following-

Specific drugs used in the therapy
Dosage of drugs
Duration of treatment

How the body responds

2. Timing of Eyebrow Loss

Once the patient starts the chemo, its side effects come simultaneously. Some people experience hair thinning in their eyebrows within a few weeks, while others experience it after a month.

It is not possible to tell exact time of eyebrows hair fall because it depends upon your body response to the chemotherapy regimen.

3. Temporary Loss

For all those wondering do you lose your eyebrows with chemo, its time to rejoice because even if the answer is yes, the hair will grow back once the therapy completes. As soon the body starts recovering after therapy, the rapidly dividing cells starts multiplying in their normal rate and hair follicles start functioning normally.

Remember, you won’t get all of your eyebrow hairs in one night. It’s a gradual process wherein you will see hair coming out sparsely and in very fine texture in the initial stage. Over time, they will look normal as before the chemo.

4. Support

Cancer can cause emotional turmoil. The patient starts looking weak, and topping it with hair loss on the scalp and eyebrow after chemo makes them even more insecure about their looks. During such a challenging time, it is essential to provide emotional support to the patient.

Regarding eyebrows, using eyebrow pencils, powders, and other makeup techniques can help fill the eyebrows and look natural until the hair comes out normally.

5. Recovery

Once chemo finishes, eyebrows come out normally. If you experience slow regrowth, consultation with your doctor will help. He/she may give an insight into drugs dosage which could be one of the probable reasons for slow regrowth. Likewise, you can visit a dermatologist for further evaluation and guidance.

Conclusion

The straightforward answer to the question of whether you lose your eyebrows with chemo is yes. While some people lose only a few hairs, called hair thinning of eyebrows, others can lose them in patches.

Chemotherapy affects hair in every body part, and your eyebrows are no exception. So, if you are going for chemo, be ready to face its adverse effects. The good thing is hair grows back once the chemo completes, and you rise above this deadly disease.

In the meantime, you can use different makeup techniques to create an illusion of fuller eyebrows or use sunglasses, scarves, hats, etc, to hide the eyebrows.

Image Source : canva