Hi,
I started FEC on Thursday and alter alot of deliberation gave the cold cap a go (after seeing this handsome chap with hair on his last chemo, i thought why not). It really wasn’t as bad as i thought. no idea what type of cap it was, it just looks like a riding hat.
I’m sure i have read that if you put conditioner on your hair it helps - has anyone else tried this? i’m assuming this way the cap gets closer to the folicle. reading old threads it seems some hospitals put conditioner on your hair before wearing the cold cap, they didn’t offer that for me - is it because there are different caps or that they can’t be bothered?
I am using the riding hat too, I think they use conditioner with the machine one as it keeps at a constant temp so the hair will freeze to it whereas ours defrosts so doesn’t stick. You could always take your own if you think it might help.
I have been using the Paxman and my hair gets swept back, wetted and covered with a good dollop of conditioner. No hair washing for 24-48 hours then life as normal. I have been using a solid shampoo/conditioner from Lush that lathers and leaves my hair silky smooth and smelling nice too.
I just don’t know if I’m going to persevere with the cold cap!
I deliberated wether to have cold cap or not but came to the conclusion that the risks out weighed the vanity lost all my hair on epi but rather that than letting any stray cancer cells get away.
Joanne42, your comment about ‘risks outweighed the vanity’ caught my attention. I had my first session of taxotere three weeks ago, second due tomorrow, and I was offered the scalp cooler, which I used, but at no point did anyone tell me that there were risks associated with using it! I will mention it to the registrar tomorrow. Presumably you mean that there’s a chance that cancer cells up near the folicles wouldn’t get zapped because the scalp cooler reduces the amount of blood circulating close to the surface?
Although the chances are slim that there may be cancer cells there its still a chance. The chemo doesnt get to your scalp. Iam surprised that they dont tell people this it was my onc that told me he said if I was going to go through all this just for a stray cell to get away was it worth it so to his advice and didnt use cap. Although losing hair was devistating and broke my heart you get used to it and its quite exciting now it growing back means iam on the road to recovery.