"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.
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:
