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A Practical, Uncensored Conversation About Breast Cancer


Paxman Cold Capping

"I'd like to kiss ya, but I just washed my hair."

 - Bette Davis

"You are the only person I know who kept your hair despite going through chemotherapy,” a coworker said to me the other day. It’s not the first time she said it. It still filled her with wonderment that I accomplished that, even though it was four years prior.

It shouldn’t be that way.

I cold capped during my six months of some pretty harsh chemotherapy. It is something that has been around in Europe since the 1970’s. In the US it first became approved by the FDA in 2015 and again in 2017.

When I found out I would be having chemo due to a Stage 2 triple positive tumor in my left breast, I reached out to an oncology nurse friend. I was still reeling from the fact that I would even be having chemo. I asked her about this cold capping business.

She told me it wouldn’t work.

When I met with an oncologist I would later fire (for a different reason), he didn’t mention the option of cold capping.

What is Cold Capping?

Cold capping is having something that resembles a hat put on your head that is very cold. The cold narrows the blood vessels beneath the skin of the scalp, which reduces the amount of chemotherapy medicine that reaches the hair follicles. This helps stop the follicles from releasing, thereby possibly keeping the hair.

It wasn’t until a week before my chemo at my Chemo Teach (a “class” on what the drugs were going to do to me) that the oncology pharmacist recommended cold capping because one of the drugs I would get had several lawsuits against them for permanent hair loss.

I was sold and the ball started rolling very quickly (a habit with anything cancer).

It turned out the infusion center had just received some Paxman scalp cooling machines. I had to order the “hat” that goes on my head and the chip in the cord. Hair To Stay helped me fund the chip (Rapunzel Project is another source).

For all six of my TCHP chemo regiment, I would use the Paxman cold cap.

Paxman Fast Facts

  • It is cold at first (2 degrees, give or take), but Ativan made me not care.
  • Your hair does thin.
  • Your hair does get very dry.
  • It does make treatment day long.
  • Your scalp does get weird (due to washing only once or twice a week).
  • You do have to be gentle while brushing.
  • You cannot blow dry or curl to style.
  • You have to be careful when wearing hats.
  • Swimming in chlorinated water is not recommended.
  • You shouldn’t color your hair during and shortly after treatment.
  • You may have to get haircuts during treatment.
  • It may not work with every chemotherapy drug.
  • It only works for tumor cancers.
  • Insurance may or may not pay for it.

While my hair did not look or feel like it did prior to treatment, the fact that I even had hair during six months of chemo made it worthwhile. I teach at an elementary school and 500 students had no idea I was undergoing chemotherapy. I could go to the grocery store and my cancer was still private.

If your cancer center does not have the Paxman system (or the DigniCap System which is another machine centers may have), you still have the option of manual cold capping.

Those companies include:

Penguin Cold Caps

Chemo Cold Caps

Arctic Cold Caps

Wishcaps

Warrior Caps


 

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