Cold caps and hair care

Hi Angie,

The information i have been given is to be very gentle with your hair and scalp during scalp cooling/ cold cap treatment.  Gentle products shampoo and conditioner etc.  Advised against colouring, blow drying and all those things that involve styling with heated appliances (can't think of the word- must be chemo brain).

There seems to be a wide variation with the amount of hair loss during scalp cooling.  Some people have thinning others lose hair in patches. I shaved my shoulder length hair back to a number two with clippers because I feel it makes the thinning/ patchiness less obvious.  I actually find the very short hair very empowering.  I don't use shampoo anymore, just water and sometimes conditioner.  Occasionally I massage in some sweet almond oil. Others where i'm treated use scarves or different styling; some don't look to have lost any hair at all.  I have actually had regrowth of hair during the scalp cooling that has filled in the patches that initially thinned.  I'm two thirds of the way through my chemo and I'm really pleased that i decided to do the scalp cooling.  The nurses tell me that when the chemo is finished hair grows back sooner with scalp cooling.

A great tip i got from these pages was to ask the doctor to prescribe a dose of ativan/ lorazepam to take before scalp cooling.  I found the head freeze feeling when the cap is cooling down to optimum level quite uncomfortable.  The paracetamol just wasn't working for me.  Another practical tip- go to the loo before you are hooked up to the scalp cooling and your chemotherapy infusion.  The scalp cooling needs to start before your chemo infusion and continue for a period of time after it is complete.  While it isn't impossible to get up if you need to it can be a bit of a kerfuffle getting disconnected/ carrying the equipment with you.  

Good luck with it.