We've had several members of our forum share their experience with the cold cap recently. One example is Charlie00000 who posted last month about their last cold capping experience and Emma05 also shared her cold cap story. Don't hesitate to post in these discussions if you would like to do so. These are just a few examples and you will find plenty more if you type in 'cold cap' in our search forum function located at the top of the page.
You will also find an interesting section on cold caps (also known as scalp cooling) at the bottom of our page on hair loss, hair thinning and cancer drugs. I hope this information will help you learn more about the possible pros and cons. Talking to others here about their experiences with the cold cap may be helpful too and I hope that someone who has tried it before will pop by and share their experience with you.
Hi, I have just finished 6, 3 weekly chemo treatments (ovarian cancer) and did try the cold cap. However, I only managed the first 2 treatments. My hair starting shedding just before my second chemo. By the end of the second chemo I really had lost about 60% of my hair. It was then I decided I could not cold cap for the remainder of my treatments so I didn't.
Personally I found it quite painful especially the second time as my scalp was pretty much directly on the cold cap. As per recommendations, I tried putting a headband at the front of the cap (forehead) and taking paracetamol beforehand. Unfortunately this did not ease the discomfort.
Also having the cap added 2 hours to the time I was on the ward. As my chemo itself took 5 hours, this really was a long day.
The above is my personal experience but I appreciate other women have sailed through having the cold cap.
Thank you Cah60 for your reply. I am getting the impression that cold capping is not all that it cracks up to be as I have read other reviews from different sites.
I will how ever give it a go but expect I will bailout if too uncomfortable and not working.
Hello Sandradee. When I had chemo, I decided not to use the cold cap. I had done a bit of research and apparently many people said that it didn't do much to preserve their hair. I started shedding my hair after the second round of chemo, and I decided to take the bull by the horns and I asked my nephew to shave off the rest of my hair. I must admit that it seemed strange having a bald head, but I bought some pretty hats and scarves and after a while it just seemed kind of normal. I also bought some satin pillow cases, because cotton can feel a bit rough against a newly shaved head, and when my chemo was finished, it took about 3 or 4 months for my hair to fully grow. I was lucky because my hair grew back just as healthy as it was before. I kept it at a 'pixie' length, because growing it back to its original waist length would have taken years. I wish you well with your treatment, kind regards, xx
Might be out with some of the exact times here because it was over 2 years ago my wife went through treatment. The things i remember, it added around an hour onto each appointment, sometimes more.
You have to take painkillers an hour before because it gives you headaches. It actually gave my wife migraines. She forgot to take painkillers once, so that added around 2 hours onto the appointment.
She endured it around 4 times during her 7 or 8 doses of chemo. She kept around 40% of her hair, even though she stopped using it. Whilst using it, her hair only thinned slightly. But yeah, the hassle it brought her, she just stopped it. The discomfort was also an issue.
It's one of those things that is proven to work in some cases. "Works" is a broad term. It was deemed to have worked in my wife's case. Some people keep most of their hair, some a fair amount, some less than half, and in some cases, it doesn't work at all.
Thank you for sharing your wife’s experience. I hope she has fully recovered from her treatment and enjoying life. I just want my treatment to start and hopefully recover and put this horrendous disease behind me.
When i first arrived here, i was in a very dark place. I was struggling badly with my wife's diagnosis. Like yourself, this was all new to me. Seriously? There were times i had my wife dead and buried before even hearing what the doctors had to say. I wasn't one of those positive people that you hear about all the time that could say "Everything will be alright" out loud. I couldn't say it out loud because i was struggling to believe it myself, at times. Yeah, what i knew about cancer before all this amounted to no more than the usual cancer = doom.
It was people on here that got me through that, and coupled with what i was witnessing, i quickly realised cancer wasn't the death sentence it used to be. In fact, my thinking was 30 or so years out of date. You will be terrified, be thinking dark things, but you'll soon realise what you have running through your head isn't the reality. There was one woman in particular on here that helped me massively. If it wasn't for her, I'm not sure how i would have got through my wife's diagnosis. I'll never forget what that person done for me, and it's why i chose to remain on here, so i could repay that woman's kindness. All it took was one person to o[pen my eyes, and I'll always be eternally grateful to her.
I don't know the ins and out of cancer, but what i do know is what one person can endure during a diagnosis of breast cancer. My wife was stage 3, grade 3 upon her being diagnosed, and it was as bad as things could get before being classed as terminal. It was in her lymphs. She was down for a mastectomy, but because she got a full response to the treatment, it was downgraded to a lumpectomy.
She got both EC and Docetaxel chemos. The EC kinda worked, but not great. It was the Docetaxel that completely killed the cancer. So even if your mid-point scans are a bit average, never lose hope because it's the full treatment cycle that matters.
