Undergoing Chemotherapy & Your Scalp
Our advice for keeping your scalp healthy during treatment
Our hair requires constant nourishment and moisture. The same is true for our scalps! Healthy hair begins with the scalp; a healthy scalp is a loose scalp. Chemotherapy also affects your oil glands, so you may notice your scalp becoming dry and tight. We have some tips and tricks to help prevent this and set yourself up for better hair growth after treatment.
Take the proactive approach! We recommend moisturizing your scalp daily using pure shea butter. Raw shea butter is loaded with A and E Vitamins and provides excellent moisture to your scalp.
Combine your moisturizing routing with a daily scalp massage. Use your fingertips and massage your entire scalp in small and circular motions. This will increase blood circulation which feeds the papillas from which your hair grows under the scalp. It’s like fertilizing the soil so the grass can grow! Throughout your treatment, make it your mission to always moisturize and massage your scalp. Once you’ve completed chemotherapy, your scalp will be more prepared for new hair growth.
Remember to be patient. Sometimes it can be frustrating, annoying, or down-right tedious to make the time for scalp care with everything else going on in your life related to treatment. Challenge yourself to take this time for you. Once a day, put your worries about treatment on the back burner to make a difference in your scalp care and future hair growth.
Always avoid using baby shampoo to clean your scalp while undergoing chemotherapy. Sometimes physicians recommend these shampoos because of their “gentleness”, but what they don’t know is how irritating and drying they can be to a scalp (not to mention they’re sometimes filled with damaging chemicals). While it is important to periodically clean your scalp while undergoing chemo, we recommend using a mild cleanser made of natural ingredients instead.
After maintaining daily scalp care, your hair will be more ready to grow after you finish chemotherapy! It is important to note, after treatments officially end, do notcontinue to use shea butter as a moisturizer and massage base, as its thickness can make it difficult for new hair to push through. Check out our next blog, “After Chemotherapy & Your Scalp” to learn more about post-chemo hair growth!
As always, if you’re curious about what you can do during before, during, or after chemotherapy treatment, contact us at info@wiglift.com