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Sister's avatar
Sister
Member
8 years ago

Cold Cap Experience

You can see I'm back with a vengeance... I was offered cold caps at the same place I would be having the chemo, at no extra cost or runaround so I decided to give it a go if I could tolerate it.  I'm not hung up on losing my hair but know that it would make everything a little bit gentler for the kids (and partner) and if I could manage it and the extra time it takes, no problems.  The day of the disastrous non-chemo, about the only thing that wasn't a problem was the cold cap - whether it wasn't on really firmly or I was just so traumatised from the preceding 6 hours, who knows...  Jump 3 days to second try at chemo and I found the cap only just bearable.  I've still got a couple of weeks to see if it has had the desired effect but I really hate having the greasy feeling of the conditioner-washed hair hanging around my face and I look like one of the lesser-groomed side characters on Midsomer Murders.  So, I'm starting to assemble fors and againsts.

I know from reading everyone's posts that when their hair falls out and grows back, the texture, colour and spread can be quite different from how it was before.

I'm sure that even with cold caps (and I know even if successful there's likely to be thinning) there will be changes to the hair.  Of those of you who have used them, how would you compare your hair to before, immediately after chemo course, and further down the track?

181 Replies

  • I used cold caps for the 4 AC, each time I found it harder and harder to bear. It didn’t quite fit properly on my crown so I still lost hair there and got a lot of generalised fall out, it also hurt my neck! I ended up deciding not to use them for the taxol as the thought of it weekly was awful.
    after 4 taxols last Sunday I decided to shave my head as it was coming out in clumps and my white tiles looked atrocious from the hair. I am very happy with my decision and am less self conscious than when I just had thinning on my crown!
    i know that didn’t answer your question sorry, hopefully some other ladies can