Pain in the scalp

[monicastorm]

Hello everyone. I'm new here and found this website while searching for some answers about the pain in my scalp. I've recently started chemotherapy that I was told would cause me to lose my hair so I bought a couple of wigs to prepare for it and I think I'm emotionally prepared for it as well. What I was not prepared for was the excrutiating pain that is associated with the hair loss. My entire scalp burns, throbs and hurts. Since I'm losing my hair so rapidly, I was thinking about having my head shaved and my question is this: will shaving my head alleviate this terrible pain? If the answer is "no" then, please tell me, is there anything that can be done to relieve the pain? Any comments will be welcome.

[Geoffrey Redmond, MD, FACE]

Hello everyone. I'm new here and found this website while searching for some answers about the pain in my scalp. I've recently started chemotherapy that I was told would cause me to lose my hair so I bought a couple of wigs to prepare for it and I think I'm emotionally prepared for it as well. What I was not prepared for was the excrutiating pain that is associated with the hair loss. My entire scalp burns, throbs and hurts. Since I'm losing my hair so rapidly, I was thinking about having my head shaved and my question is this: will shaving my head alleviate this terrible pain? If the answer is "no" then, please tell me, is there anything that can be done to relieve the pain? Any comments will be welcome.

Scalp pain is common with hair loss. However I have not heard this reported by patients of mine who have had chemo. Unless you have oily scalp with crusting (seborrheic dermatitis of the scalp) I am not sure it is related to the actual hair loss. First, you should ask your oncologist if this has happened to others with the same kind of chemo. One approach is to use medications which are shown effective in chronic pain. These include amitriptylene, Lyica and Cymbalta. I do not have experience using these for people in your situation but you can ask your oncologist if one would be appropriate for you.