Wednesday, August 19, 2009

More curlers

There was an article about Trevor Sorbie, & his work to help women have decent looking wigs to wear after chemotherapy, in The Times on Saturday.

I was particularly fascinated to read that "As well as loss of hair, chemotherapy can damage the hair follicles so straight hair may grow curly" – which was certainly news to me. If this has always been known, why did I get treated as some kind of oddity when asking questions about my experience with hrt?

Because “There doesn't seem to be any proven answer” according to Jennifer Griggs, M.D., MPH on the Breastcancer.org website.


Jonathan Torch, founder of Toronto’s Curly Hair Institute, has his own theory, according to the naturallycurly.com site:

He believes changes in the muscles at the base of every follicle are the key to the changes in hair texture that take place over time. These muscular changes, he says, often come during puberty, chemotherapy or menopause, when hormones and medications may affect the muscle tone.
Sometimes these changes can be extreme, says Torch, who has witnessed many a client go from curly to straight and straight to curly.” I can’t prove anything medically,” he says. “But I have a philosophy that genetically, the muscles are changing. And this changes the shape of the follicle


Well, particulalry if you have cancer I guess there are far more important things to worry about. Thing is though, as well as having a major effect on how you feel, it's disturbing to know just how many of the basics science & medicine just do not understand


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