I didn’t but did use the cold cap at the chemo ward (does your chemo ward not have them?) which would be as good (if not better) than ones you would buy on line and lost c30-40% of my hair after the 2nd EC. I could have kept my hair but for ease (and it would have looked pants anyway) shaved it off, tbh wasn’t that bothered though totally understand why some ladies have a hard time with this aspect of cancer treatment side effect.
My advice would be don’t waste your money on something from Amazon which may well be ineffective full stop (as many such items are out there that try & replicate the expensive stuff available in hospitals) and also for something where you may well lose your hair anyway.
I did buy (for paclitaxol) cold gloves and socks (chemo unit didn’t have) and they did not prevent the side effects I had hoped they would btw.
Hello Deb3112 I used a cold cap through 8 cycles of chemo and having just finished chemo I have around 50% of my hair left. It has really thinned out but there are no bald patches and it has already started to grow back. If you are going to use a cold cap then you need to start from your first chemo session - did you use the hospital provided cold cap for your first one? If so, I'm not sure why you would be considering buying your own as I took a look on Amazon and the cold caps there seem to be all one size, expensive, and using them would involve buying several caps, freezing them to a very low temperature at home then transporting them to the chemo unit in an ice bag with dry ice and swapping them over mid chemo treatment. This is a really 'early' way of using a cold cap and things have progressed a lot since then, making the process much easier. The cap needs to be a tight fit and my chemo unit provided them in a range of sizes - all sanitized between uses - and the system involves keeping the same cap on throughout the chemo session, not taking it off mid-session, as it is attached to a machine which ensures that the cap remains at the same constant temperature throughout. It's not vain to want to keep your hair but you would be spending a lot of money for something that may not work, not to mention the potential added stress of transporting an ice bag full of caps to chemo sessions and trying to get hold of dry ice! Regardless of what you decide to do I hope the rest of your chemo goes well x
Well I think NNUH has them, but it would delay treatment waiting for them , so I opted not to wait , who would?? I don’t see anyone wearing one when I went for my first , thought maybe they are not effective enough / worth the trouble , it they have very few ??
I think I do remember Victoria Derbyshire wearing one on tv , but presume her hair fell out as she wore a wig for a while, Altho her hair was soon back to it’s thick luscious state
yes not cheap on Amazon £95 ? Shipped from Germany
Firstly Happy Christmas! And secondly….the cold gloves/socks are for specific chemo drugs (I.e. paclitaxol) that can cause peripheral neuropathy (damage to these areas), helping them cold helps prevent the side effects. Suspect you’re on something like EC which doesn’t have this side effect.
