cold caps for hair, hands, and feet.
My sister was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer one month ago. Today was our first chemotherapy session. It went really good. The nurses suggested a cold cap because she is very scared of losing her hair. Does the cold cap really work? What are the best prices/places to get one? Also she used a cold cap for her hands and feet to decrease neuropathy, has anyone used it and been successful? Thanks
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Hi. I iced my hands and feet throughout chemotherapy (Adriamycin, cytoxan then taxol) and I have not had peripheral neuropathy. It’s been almost 4 years since I completed IV chemo, so I think the icing helped. I did not use a cold cap on my head because it didn’t matter that much to me about losing my hair and I was also told that with adriamycin, cold capping would not help with hair.
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It's a little late to look into cold capping if she's looking to keep most of her hair. All it takes is one chemo treatment. It may still be worth doing though if she wants to protect her follicles so the hair grows back quicker and more abundant. I cold capped and lost 90% of my hair but five weeks after my last treatment could rock a pixie cut. I wouldn't say it looked great (that came about a month later) but it covered my head. I am glad she's doing ice packs for her hands and feet though. I did that and yes, hugely successful. No neuropathy and nails looked fantastic through treatment.
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Hi @buckeyegirl35, and welcome to our Breastcancer.org Community!
We're so sorry to hear of your sister's diagnosis, but we're really glad you've found us. You're sure to find our space a helpful place for advice, information, encouragement, and support — we're all here for you and your sister!
To start, we wanted to share with you this page on Cold Caps and Scalp Cooling Systems which explains how they work, along with some practial info on pricing and how to get a system.
There's also a couple of podcasts:
- All about Cold Caps
- Using Cold Caps to Prevent Hair Loss - a patient's perspective
And some research news articles:
- Cold Therapy May Help Prevent Hair Loss, Skin, Nail Side Effects of Taxane Chemotherapy
- Hand Cooling, Compression Nearly Halve Risk of Neurotherapy From Chemotherapy
This thread also will be super helpful to you — Cold Caps Users Past and Present to Save Hair. Feel free to post and ask about others' experiences.
We hope this helps get you started. Please let us know if there's anything else we can do to help support you and your sister.
—The Mods
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hi @buckeyegirl35 I am currently cold capping . Last treatment is next Friday. I am using dignicap and have kept probably 95% of my hair. You would have no idea I’m going through chemo treatments, it has worked very well for me. There are many different things out there with mixed results. I know a lot of woman have had great results with the penguin capping system.Facebook has a cold cappers group your sister may want to join. It was definitely worth doing for me! If you’re interested in seeing pics of my hair before chemo and after #3 session let me know:)
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