Chemotherapy - cold cap

I everyone hope everyone doing as well as they can be.

ive had my first lot of chemo with the cooling cap second round due Friday but yesterday i noticed my hair starting to fall out so now I’m wondering weather to have the cooling cap again, has anyone been in the same situation ? And what did you do ? 
thanks Emma x

  • Hi Emma05,

    I'm sorry you haven't received a reply up to now - it sounds like it is today you were due to have the second round. Hopefully by now you have received some advice on this.

    You can also search this forum (using the bar at the top of the page) for other relevant discussions, which will hopefully be helpful.

    I have also slightly tweaked the subject of your post in order to try to encourage some more replies here.

    Wishing you all the best,

    Ben
    Cancer Chat Moderator

  • Hello Emma ,sorry to hear that .Have a chat with chemo nurses and see if it’s worth persevering. Is it a lot of hair ? 
    Good luck xxx

  • Hi I did I took the hair that come out last night but they couldn’t tell me weather to have it again or not it’s up to me I’m going to see how I go with the hair loss from now till I go back weather I have it again xx

  • Hi, i had the cold cap for my first chemo treatment. No problems with the cap but by day 19 afterwards my hair was really shedding.

    Continued with the cap for treatment two but it was so painful. The nurse said probably because my hair had thinned so much the cap was directly on my scalp.

    Had my third treatment yesterday but decided not to continue with the cap as i have now lost about 75% of my hair.

    I had a wig fitted already prior to chemo which i am really pleased with and have several hats bought online. 

    I appreciate the cold cap is meant to (for some people) slow down hair loss but for me i cannot put myself through any further stress on top of cancer diagnosis and chemo.

    Good luck whatever you decide to do x

  • I stuck with the cold cap throughout 16 rounds of chemo despite the amount of hair loss I am glad I did as the regrowth was worth it I didn't loose all my hair. The nurses did say I should give up but I persevered used a medical cap. After chemo I used a product from amazon called grow me this also helped with re growth. My wig really helped. Do what's right for you. Good luck

  • Offline in reply to Cah60

    Sorry it didn’t work for you I don’t think I’ll b using it again if my hair keeps coming out xx

  • Was that a shampoo and conditioner I got from Amazon x

  • Hello Emma ,sorry to hear the cold cap was unsuccessful. I didn’t use it ,but you will be surprised how quickly your hair grows back once treatment finishes ,

    All the best xxx

  • It's important to make sure they give you the right size cap. Some nurses don't seem to know how to do the cold cap. I had it for both my chemos. You need to have the cap on for 30 minutes before the first drug starts. I had carboplatin & pacitaxel, I'm not sure I've spelt that correctly. The cap has to stay on for the whole of the 2 drugs & for 90 minutes after treatment. The first 20 minutes is quite painful but then it's fine. I lost some hair but kept most of it both times. It was thinner but so much better than losing all my hair. I'm happy I persevered. I had one nurse wanting to use a large cap on me. I let her the first time but I felt it wasn't right & I had some hair come out round the edges because the cap wasn't on tight enough. It was fine when I went back to the medium cap. Good luck with everything. It's a personal choice. Take care.  Sue 

  • Offline in reply to SueT1

    Hi Sue. So pleased the cap is working for you. I am also on Carboplatin and Paclitaxil but have been told I can not have the cold cap as my session was to last longer than you can keep the cap on. I’ve had 1 session and after 11 days I’m losing quite a lot of hair. I do have a wig and bandana ready for the time. Trying to stay positive. I wish you all the very best and good luck xx