How Does Cold Capping Work and What are the Potential Benefits During Chemo?

Ever heard of Cold Capping? Before I was diagnosed with breast cancer I had never heard of cold capping, until a friend mentioned it to me to check it out. I started researching immediately, because let's just be real, loosing my hair scared me more than my diagnosis. It would most women. When my mom was diagnosed the second time and they told her she was not a candidate for radiation, I remember being in the doctor office with her and hearing her say, "What will I have to do, I don't want to lose my hair?" As females, our image is our identity and we value it. When you take that away suddenly, of course you can expect to experience low self-esteem, and possibly even depression. You have some that may even reject chemo treatment because they can't stand the thought of going bald. Well..... For me rejecting chemo treatment was not even a question in my mind, because I got three beautiful babies that I want to raise and see grow up so whatever needs to be done I was determined I was going to do it. I remember crying a few days about my hair but once my friend told me to check out cold capping I had HOPE!! I knew no matter the cost, I wanted to give it a try, and to try and protect my mental health and my babies who may be upset to see their mom lose her hair. So...…. My goal of this blog post is to educate you all on exactly what it is so you can share it with your friends you may come in contact with that has been diagnosed with cancer and needing chemo.

What is Cold Cap Therapy?

Cold capping is a drug-free and non-invasive technique of scalp cooling, proven to minimizing hair loss.

Cold capping has been around for many years actually. There is many different cold capping systems out there, but Penguin Cold Caps are the original inventors of modern cold cap therapy. Their cold caps contain a crylon gel that allows them to stay colder for longer and is moldable to the shape of the scalp, which produces better results. It cools the hair capillaries, so they go into a hibernated state during treatment. Cold capping reduces damage to your hair follicles, but they don't protect them completely. Hair shedding is normal, but with the use of the cap it keeps it evenly spread and unlikely to show. Older hairs get pushed out first once you start getting the chemo but studies show that it may feel thinner, but you are able to save enough so that no one notices, other than you of course.

What kind of results can you expect when capping?

60-90% of your hair can be retained, although the precise amount of hair shedding will depend on the type of chemo drug you are getting and even your wellbeing. Penguin actually sent me a personalized schedule, based on my drug regimen on how long it need to be on and how often it needed to be changed out to keep the correct temperature to give me the best results.

RULES, RULES, RULES...

I don't want to scare you, but it is a huge commitment and you can't do it by yourself. Again, everyone's schedule is different based on your drug regimen, but here is what a day of chemo looks like for me with cold capping. I have to start cooling my scalp a hour prior to treatment. So the cap goes on once I get to the treatment center. Time they do my blood drawl, and my pre chemo drugs it ends up being an hour. During that first hour, Austin has to change my caps out every 20 minutes. Once I hit the hour mark, they get changed out every 25 minutes. Chemo last about 2.5 hours so I wear the cap for a total of about 3 hours in the facility. Then, I have to continue wearing my cap for 5 hours after chemo. (Again, this is because I got the bad stuff, Red Devil) So I am wearing the cap for 8 hours pretty much, with changes being every 25 minutes. The kit comes with a cooler and 3 cold caps. The others cool on the dry ice while you have one on your head. If you buy dry ice the night before treatment you will need 60 lbs. of dry ice, with a cost of about $140.00. The desired temperature of the caps are to be -30 to -37 degrees. Each cap temperature has to be checked to be a the desired temperature before putting it on each time. Now, you see why I say, Austin is my hero?? You may say "OMG -30 degrees is cold, I can't do that". Yes you can! While it is cold, it is bearable. The first couple caps are the worst, but as your scalp cools, you get numb and won't notice the cold quiet as much. You are given a list of suggestions / rules to be successful with your personalized schedule.

Here are just a few:

• Do not wash your hair 3 days prior to treatment

• Wash your hair on day 3 after treatment

• Hair has to be washed in cold/cool water, very gentle

• You can no longer use a curling iron, flat iron or blow dryer on HEAT. After washes you can let your hair air dry or use the blow dryer on cool

• NO hair coloring or highlights

• Highly encouraged to use only a wide tooth comb

• Use chemical free hair care products, to many to list LOLLOL :)

• Use a silk pillowcase and silk pony tail holders if you have a need to pull it up

  
  

These are most of them... Once you start chemo your hair becomes very dry so washing it one time a week isn't as bad as you think. I actually hate wash days. I shed so much more when it's wet, it's almost painful to see. The aggravating part to me is not being able to style it like I want and having to go all natural. On the flipside, getting ready in the mornings is much faster. LOLLOL :) I think I told you in a previous blog that I would say I have lost about 70% of my hair. I still consider that a success. I had a VERY HARSH chemo and I kept 20% of my hair and the loss is thru out evenly so the average person would never even know. I follow a group on Facebook for cold capping and there is so many that keep 50%+, but again they maybe on a different regimen. Everyone is different. I defiantly say it's worth the try and worth recommending to a friend. But... I also want to be very honest and say that it's a commitment for you and your partner. There have been times I wanted to give up and throw in the towel on bad shed days, but Austin was there to say "No you aren't a quitter". So we survived Red Devil cold capping and we will see how this next drug treats my hair but for now we are going to keep on keeping on. :)

Cost

Like I stated earlier there is several cold capping systems. The Penguin system that I use, has kits that are available to rent on a monthly rental basis. It comes with everything you need, but the rental alone is $419.00 per month not counting dry ice. Unfortunately, it is not something insurances are covering yet. There is a lot of groups fighting to try to get them to start, but not currently. Once I start weekly treatments, you got 140.00 (dry ice) x 4=$560.00 for dry ice plus 419.00 rental, you are looking at $979.00 a month. So it can become costly very quick.

I want to educate

I know there is a reason for this cancer season and I don't want what I'm going thru to be a waste. If I can help educate just one person and help their mental state, it will all be worth it. This system gave me hope in a very dark time and I hope it can to others as well. If you know of someone that has questions or wants to know more about cold capping, send them my way. I had a sweet lady help me I had never met, and she still checks on me. I would love to help and return the favor.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend doing all the things they love! Tell somebody you love them, do a act of kindness. Life is to short!!

XOXO~Britney