Cold Caps and Hair Loss

Author: Shannon Miller

Losing your hair during chemotherapy is a very personal, emotional and difficult part of your chemo journey. Not everyone will lose their hair completely. A lot will depend on your personal chemo cocktail. My physician had prepared me prior to starting treatment that I would lose my hair with my particular course of treatment. I remain thankful to him for preparing me upfront versus giving me false hope.

It allowed me time to wrap my mind around it. I also had a chance to talk to others and ask questions. Does it hurt? Should I shave my head or wait until it all falls out? When will it fall out? When it comes back what will it look like?

Making this side effect part of the conversation helped me come to terms with it. Of course, if you’ve been following my journey you’ve likely seen my head shaving video. It certainly helps to understand when and how it will happen but when the time comes….it’s just tough.

I have received so many emails, letter, etc talking about the different creams, lotions and devices that could save my hair. By the time we were able to do much research on these options my hair was already gone.

For those of you that may face this in the future personally or with a family member, we decided to ask our expert.

We all need to do what feels right for us individually. If you decide you want to try certain procedures to save your hair, the most important thing is to make sure your physician is aware of any medications, chemicals, lotions, caps, etc. that you are thinking of using. The last thing you want to do is use something that could affect your chemotherapy.