Will Jean Slater lose her hair in EastEnders? A clump falls out tonight leaving the Walford favourite devastated
Jean has had two rounds of cancer treatment and is worried about losing her hair
EastEnders fan favourite Jean Slater – who’s played by Gillian Wright in the BBC soap - was diagnosed with stage three ovarian cancer last month.
She’s recently started chemotherapy – with her long-lost son Sean accompanying her to her latest session – but so far she still has her hair.
When she was first diagnosed in EastEnders, one of Jean’s biggest concerns was losing her hair and looking like a ‘victim’. So is her hair loss inevitable?
Let’s find out…
According to cancer charity , hair loss is one of the most well-known symptoms of cancer treatment.
They say that patients undergoing cancer treatment can experience a wide range of hair loss from mild thinning to partial loss, to complete loss.
The website also states that chemotherapy – which is the treatment Jean is currently undergoing – is most likely to cause hair loss and that other types of therapy usually don’t cause complete loss.
Interestingly, it states that not all types of chemo causes hair loss and some actually don’t cause any at all, or just a slight thinning.
Sinead Tinker in Coronation Street had slight hair loss while she was undergoing chemo for cervical cancer, but didn’t suffer complete loss which is called alopecia.
Other types of chemo can cause complete loss of all body hair including eyebrows, eyelashes, underarm hair and sometimes pubic hair.
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Hair loss also depends on the type of drug or combination of drugs being administered, the dose, individual sensitivity to the drug and past treatment.
If a patient is going to lose their hair it will usually begin 2-3 weeks after treatment starts. It’s a gradual loss rather than a sudden one and lots of patients decide to take control over it by shaving their heads when they notice their hair falling out.
As Jean is now on her second round of chemo, it’s likely that she’ll start noticing some hair loss soon.
Jean’s cancer storyline was announced in January and not long after it was revealed that Rob Kazinsky would be making a short return to the soap as
Jean’s son Sean.
This week the pair decided to leave Walford for a short break but with reports of Sean’s own mental health battle, will they both make it back to Walford?
- EastEnders is on BBC One tonight at 7.30pm