The number one thought on most people’s mind post-chemo is how quickly will their hair grow back and what will it look like. Though I became quite fond of my bald head, the day chemo was over, I threw that love to the wind and put all my energy into regrowing my hair. After many nights of research, I settled on Biotin as my first plan of attack. I started taking the Biotin supplements the day my chemo ended (with my doctor’s approval) and I was so amazed by the results. My hair grew like weeds.

Though I was thrilled to have hair on my head again, I was not so thrilled about the hair that quickly sprouted EVERYWHERE else. One day, I even found 2 long hairs coming out of my cheeks! It was also around that time that I experienced a horrible bout of cystic acne, so I decided to take a break from the Biotin and exercise some patience.  I have since gone back on a lower dose of Biotin in a gummy form and have had no side effects.

Now I am about 13 weeks out from chemo and I am finding creative ways to style this odd little mess of hair on my head. As someone who has always had long hair, this is a new beast for me to tackle. As a beauty addict, I am taking this as just another beauty challenge. It’s a chance for me to try new styles, experiment with new products and build my confidence along the way.

As I started looking for information on how to style post-chemo hair I found that Google Image were greatly lacking. There were lots of articles on the topic, but very few photos. I wanted photos, real images of women post-cancer.  So after many unsuccessful searches, I finally stumbled upon Leo With Cancer. Her blog was everything I was looking for, beauty, fashion, hair and Dena is a breast cancer survivor. Jackpot!
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So in the spirit of growing the post-chemo hair inventory on Google, I figured I would dedicate a whole post to tips for hair regrowth, a hair growth timeline and tips for styling your fresh new baby hair. The best thing is, this post will be FILLED with tons of photos.

1. Biotin Supplement or Biotin Gummies
2. Hair Pomade 
3. Cute Headbands

The Faux Hawk
As your hair is beginning to grow in it will still be patching and the middle may be longer at first. Using water or hair paste (more effective) mold the middle into a mohawk with your hands. This is a way to add a playful fun touch to this length.

Headbands
Headbands are fantastic during this time. Look for headbands with thin sparkly bands. This will add some dimension to your hair and dress it up.

The comb over
Using hair paste comb your hair over to the side and define a deep side part. This will be easier the longer your hair looks. When we hear “comb over” we general think balding old men, but this look can actually look can actually be very feminine.

Fringe
The inclination when you are growing your hair out is to cut the hair around your ears, because it’s so dang annoying and somewhat unsightly. If you plan to grow your hair out longer, stay away from the scissor. Instead ask your hair stylist to feather that area. This will take away some of the weight and help the hair lay smoother, while still keeping the length.

Pixie
By about 6-8 months you will have more of a pixie look, which gives you more styling options. Investing in mini straightener and some touchable curl cream will allow you to easily options to wear your hair curly or straight. Hair oil is also great for smoothing the frizz that comes with chemo curls. You may also find that you need hydrating products at this stage to combat the dryness that comes with curly hair. The hydrating shampoo and conditioner from Pureology were lifesaving products for me.

Strong Eye Makeup & Brows
Strong eye makeup and brows can really balance out your face with a short hairdo. Strong brows  in particular will bring definition to your face.


Check out my updated Post-chemo hair styling article on I Had Cancer


This article first appeared on My Cancer Chic

A common question that new mothers ask, is whether or not hair loss is normal. We’re going to admit that a few months after you give birth, attempts to use your professional curling wand might end in disaster as it pulls out strands and leaves you wondering whether or not something is wrong with you. You’ll get the same result when you step into the shower, without a doubt. Not only will you get a clogged drain, you’ll get a head full of worry, and it’s definitely not pleasant. That being said, you probably want to know what’s going on, and it all has to do with the growth cycle during the pregnancy.

Hair growth cycles do last longer during pregnancy, and as a result, your hair gets thicker – this is a direct result of increased estrogen in the body, and it does increase the anagen phase of hair growth. Following pregnancy, the anagen phase returns to normal and your hair falls out, so ultimately, the question is, what can you do about it?

Try Different Hairstyles along with a Professional Curling Wand
There are quite a few things that you can do to address the hair issue, and once you first start to experience the problem, you’ll probably be attempting to compensate for the loss of volume. Use the following steps to fix your hair problems and get it back on the right track.

Get a Haircut
Is there ever a good reason to not get a good haircut? Seriously, any excuse to rush into the salon and take care of business is a good one. If you speak to your hairstylist, there is a good chance that you can get them to give you a haircut that helps to increase your volume while giving you a style that perfectly supports the condition post-pregnancy has left your hair in.

Start Using Different Products
If you were a huge fan of your hair during pregnancy then there is a chance that you want it to keep the same volume, and who can blame you? On many people, pregnancy hair is absolutely beautiful, and with that being the case, we would strongly recommend that you start using volumizing products in combination with your hair curler set or any other heat tools that you have on hand. Most importantly, when you decide to experiment with different products, we would strongly recommend that you use those of the highest possible quality. One of the biggest mistakes that we see people make is the purchase of cheaper products, even if they own professional curling sets.

Let’s be clear: you don’t want to buy 50 cent shampoo at the dollar store. Instead, choose something that’s infused with argan oil and can give your hair the healthy shine it needs. It’s a bit more expensive, but you’re going to thank us at the end of the day. If you need any hints or tips on great products, make sure you take a look at our store, you’re going to be quite pleased with what we have to offer!
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Style it Properly
There are many ways to maintain your volume, for example, if you are using a hair straightener, you can pull upward on your locks, rather than downward to create the illusion of additional volume. It’s a pretty simple trick but it works very well.

Take Good Care of your Hair
Just as with any other major change, this will put some stress on your body, and with that being the case, you do need to make sure you’re taking proper care of it. Use the right products and as per always, use the right protection with your hair wand set. Once your hair returns to normal you’ll have a lot to learn, again, but it won’t be too difficult. As always, make sure you check out our Carebox, which, for a fairly low price contains all of the products you need to make your hair sleek and shine every single month.

This article first appeared on HSI Professional

BRAZIL

We know that moon phases affect the tides and cause 99 percent of “I’ll just have one more drink” hangovers. (We made that last one up.) (Sounds right, though.) Women in Brazil also believe it impacts their hair. “I try to trim my hair once a month when it’s a full moon,” says São Paulo–born Victoria’s Secret model Lais Oliveira. If it sounds like superstition, that’s because it is. “Brazilians are a very superstitious people in general, and they believe that they can cut their hair during different moon phases to get different results,” says Valeria Cole, the founder of Teadora, a hair- and skin-care line that uses natural ingredients found in the rain forests of Brazil (like maracujá, pitanga, and buriti). “A new moon strengthens the strands, a crescent moon accelerates growth and increases shine, and a full moon means more volume. My mom believed this with all of her heart and would scold me for cutting my hair whenever I wanted.”

Moon phases aside, Brazilians also have to worry about sand, sun, and seawater turning their hair — which is often naturally curly — dry, frizzy, and brittle. “Women in Brazil do a lot of keratin treatments to hydrate their hair,” Oliveira says. “Keratin treatment” is a catchall term, though, that can mean anything from deep conditioners to far more noxious formulas. The legend goes that once upon a time an embalmer in Brazil found that the formaldehyde he used on corpses also straightened their hair. Brazilian women’s desire for straight hair ran so deep that the carcinogen was soon incorporated into salon treatments, called escova progressiva (progressive blow-dry). They eventually migrated to the U.S. — we’re guessing you’ve heard of the Brazilian blowout. “Many of the formulas made by Brazilian Blowout and other companies are now formaldehyde-free,” says Cole. “But definitely not all.” Cole recommends an entirely innocuous Brazilian hair-smoothing technique that long pre-dates the escova progressiva: “Touca de cabelo has been passed down for generations. You pin your hair tightly to your head and then cover it with an old stocking overnight. In the morning, it’s perfectly straight and super soft.”

Brazilian blogger Camila Coutinho’s favorite hair smoother is a conditioning cocktail of protein, keratin, and vitamin B5. “It’s created in a hair salon called SpaDios in São Paulo,” she says. SpaDios’s menu also includes laser treatments, scalp suctioning, and velaterapia — a popular local tradition that involves twisting the hair in small sections and running the flame of a candle along the length of it to burn off split ends. For at-home split-end mending, Cole looks to a simple Brazil-nut-oil treatment or a DIY chocolate mask (combine cocoa with cornstarch and water), which we imagine smells a hell of a lot better than burning hair.
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If this all sounds a little high-maintenance, that’s because it is. Brazil has one of the largest hair-care markets in the world. In 2014, Brazilian women collectively spent more than $7 billion on their hair. One study found that Brazilian women use three times as many post-treatment products as American women. One particularly popular option is “combing cream,” a detangler-and-styling-cream mash-up that’s great for coddling curls. (You can now find a few options on our shores: We like Pantene Pro-V Moisturizing Combing Crème, $5.) And curl coddling is something Brazilians are doing a lot more of lately. “Hair straightening has always been very popular in Brazil, but over the last few years, a black-consciousness movement has developed, with street celebrations of kinky and curly hair as a political act,” says sociologist Chelsea Johnson. “There’s a new market for curly-hair products.”


A version of this article originally appeared in the March 2018 issue of Allure.

INDIA

The next time a Bollywood actress invites you over for a girls’ night, take a big whiff of the kitchen. Smell that? It’s fresh flowers and coconut. They’re staples in the DIY hair masks that most Indian women are cooking up from a young age, says model Natasha Ramachandran, who is from Pune. “Indian women are gifted with thick, healthy hair. In order to keep our scalps hydrated and nourished, we use coconut- and almond-oil masks. My mother, my grandmother, my aunt, my sisters — we all grew up doing it.” Model Rasika Navare, also originally from Pune, massages coconut oil through the length of her hair once a week as well; sometimes she switches in organic argan or rose hip oil. “Hair is one of the most important aspects of beauty in Indian culture,” she says. “People around the world love thick, long Indian hair...and we know it.”

Indian women have had deep ties to their hair for centuries. A lot of their practices stem from the Hindu religion (practiced by about 85 percent of the country), and many begin at birth. Some Hindu families will ceremoniously shave the heads of their children — a tradition called chuda-karana — in order to clear them of impurities and start fresh. The sacrifice of hair is key in the Hindu religion, and many make pilgrimages to temples to offer their hair — cut from the scalp — in exchange for a blessing or as a sign of devotion.

Braids are common for very devout Hindu women, and usually only widows leave their hair down. Unbound hair is associated with “loose” women (yikes). Young Hindu girls traditionally wear two pigtail braids and then transition into womanhood with a single long braid.

But times are changing, and in 2018 these strict Hindu practices aren’t as common. Unless a woman is from a very traditional orthodox family, a single braid or updo isn’t necessary, and she can wear that famous thick, dark Indian hair in whatever way she pleases — and that includes Westernized styles like bobs and colors like...purple. But travel to rural India and you’ll likely still see that long, glossy braid down the back of a Hindu woman. And then there’s the beautiful Indian vegetation. Imagine flowers in every vivid tropical color of the spectrum — violet dahlias! Rich marigolds! Delicate pink lilies! It’s a literal garden of hair accessories, and women take advantage of the sweet smells and brilliant colors to add flair to their hairstyles for special occasions. And to imbue them with special meaning. Many women in Tamil Nadu, in southern India, fasten a string of jasmine to their hair as a symbol of good fortune. Did we mention their hair must smell incredible? I think we did.

​A version of this article originally appeared in the March 2018 issue of Allure.

DENMARK

“We are, in a way, a very uniform people. Keeping our hair the same, simple and undone, makes us feel safe,” says Copenhagen-based makeup artist Marie Thomsen. “It’s a way of showing the world that we have things under control, that we are feminine but strong.” And you’re unlikely to see a Drybar Copenhagen any time soon. “I don’t think I know anyone who does a real blowout, even when going out,” says Thomsen, who washes her hair (at home) twice a week and fills the gap with Klorane dry shampoo ($20) and a little texturizing spray. Think effortless Parisian beauty, but with even more minimalism — and a dash of hygge. “We use a lot of thick conditioners and hair masks,” says stylist Pernille Teisbaek, who relies on Kevin Murphy’s line of hair products. But there aren’t a lot of homespun recipes being passed down through the generations. “My family didn’t teach me about what to do with my hair growing up, but that’s the point,” says fashion blogger Marie Hindkær. “Danish women don’t want people to think they spend a lot of time on their hair.” Hindkær describes her fine, super straight texture as “typical Scandinavian hair.” A blast of volumizer (she likes Maria Nila Volume Spray, $31) and a touch of Moroccanoil is all she’ll admit to using. It doesn’t take more than a minute. Really.

​A version of this article originally appeared in the March 2018 issue of Allure.