Cold caps

Hello lovely
I have just finished 12 weeks of Paclitaxel and I had access to the PAXMAN scalp cooling therapy at the public hospital I had all my treatment at.   I wore the cold cap every single week.  30mins prior to infusion, then the 1hr during the infusion of the taxol, and then for 1 hour afterwards.
In my experience, whilst this extended my time in the chair, I found this definitely helped me keep my hair.  I trimmed it from very long to just below shoulder length at the start of Chemo and then went to a bob a few weeks later, and then to a short pixie cut a few weeks after that.  The reason I kept trimming shorter is I had a very painful scalp and like the hair follicles hurt every time I touched them or they moved. 

Having the shorter cut made it more tolerable wearing the cap.  It is totally up to you if you continue to wear the cap, but if you stop it at any point, you cannot resume wearing it next time.  I pushed through and I'm so glad I did.  Not a single hair left on the rest of my body, except for my head!  SO what does that say??!! 

Wishing you all the best with the remainder of your treatment xo 

Hi kitkat5​ - great question and thankyou for starting the conversation.

While we wait for others to share their lived experience with cold caps - we found an older post that had quite alot of chatter:

Scalp cooling - should I stop, done 11 chemos and 5 to go | BCNA Online Network 

Also sharing our website page Scalp cooling to prevent or reduce hair loss

Perhaps after you gather all of the insights and information, it could be a good idea to have a conversation with your breast care nurse as well.

All the best with the rest of your treatment. Hopefully the cold capping hasn't been too uncomfortable for you so far.