Cold Caps for Chemotherapy
It’s possible through cold cap therapy, a drug-free and non-invasive treatment, to help reduce hair loss from chemotherapy. Cold capping or scalp cooling allows you to preserve your privacy and maintain a sense of normality.
WHAT IS COLD CAP THERAPY?
Cold cap therapy involves fitting a specially designed gel-filled cap to cool the hair follicles of your scalp. This cools the hair capillaries (blood vessels), reducing the metabolic rate of the follicles, so they go into a hibernated state and stop the hair bulbs from absorbing the chemo drugs.
Caps need to be worn for approximately 50 to 60 minutes before your infusion for the best success rate. You must ensure your scalp is sufficiently cooled before the chemo enters your system.
You need to wear the caps continually while you have your treatment, changing every 20 to 25 minutes to ensure you maintain your scalp at the correct temperature.
WHAT KIND OF RESULTS CAN I EXPECT?
You can expect to retain between 60% and 90% of your hair – although the precise amount of hair shedding will depend on the type of chemotherapy drugs and your physical wellbeing.
Many people are concerned about the amount of shedding – but this is normal. As long as the hair loss is evenly spread, it’s unlikely to show. Cold Caps reduce the damage to the hair follicles, but they can’t protect them completely. Chemotherapy accelerates the hair cycle, and as a result, the older hairs are pushed out earlier, which is why patients experience shedding. You might not have as much hair, and it’s likely to feel thinner, but success for most people is to save enough so that no one notices… other than you.
You can read more about shedding at Penguin Cold Caps: https://penguincoldcaps.com/cold-cap-info/shedding-is-normal-when-cold-capping/
MACHINE VS. MANUAL COLD CAPPING
There are two different types of Cold Cap Therapy – Manual and Machine. Penguin Cold Caps is a manual system that has been proven to give the best results.
Manual capping enables patients to walk around the clinic, visit the bathroom and continue to wear the caps after their chemo has finished and they’ve left the clinic. With machine capping, the cap maintains its temperature because it is connected to a machine, but it means that the patient can’t move around.
Machine capping is more straightforward – the caps don’t need to be changed during treatment, and there’s no need to keep checking the temperature. However, patients who choose to cap with a manual system achieve much better results.
WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE?
The first caps will feel very cold, but the nerve endings on your scalp become numb after the first 30 to 60 minutes, after which the Cold Caps become far more bearable. Many patients say they expected the worst and were surprised that it wasn’t as bad as they had feared.
Visit Penguin Cold Caps to read user accounts of cold capping where they have documented their experiences.
Polar Ice would like to thank Penguin Cold Caps for kindly allowing us to share their content and images.
Ordering Your Dry Ice
Dry ice slices are used to precondition the cold caps to keep them at the required low temperature throughout treatment sessions. These are simply thin slices of dry ice, which you can order easily through our online store. Your dry ice will be delivered in insulated polyboxes, which can be safely reused for storing the slices and for any future orders.
Dry ice slices are used to precondition the cold caps to keep them at the required low temperature throughout treatment sessions.
These are simply thin slices of dry ice, which you can order easily through our online store. Your dry ice will be delivered in insulated polyboxes, which can be safely reused for storing the slices and for any future orders.
We recommend 20 – 30kg of dry ice slices per chemotherapy session. 30kg of dry ice is advised if you need to have the dry ice delivered or collected before your day of treatment as dry ice gradually sublimates over time.
If you are considering cold cap treatment for the first time, it is understandable to have questions, and we want you to know that you are not alone, a dedicated member of our Customer Focus Team is here to help.
Before you place your first order, a member of our Customer Focus Team will talk you through the ordering process, step-by-step, so you can feel reassured and confident about what need to do when ordering for the first time.
We will also provide you with a unique discount code giving you 15% off the cost of the dry ice when ordering online — this is Polar Ice’s way of supporting patients during cold cap treatment.
If you would find it helpful, we can put you in touch with other people who have used cold cap therapy, so they can share their experiences and help answer your queries. Our aim is to make the dry ice part of your treatment feel as supportive and straightforward as possible.
Contact our Customer Focus Team via info@polarice.ie or call 057 862 3860
CUSTOMER TESTIMONIAL
We spoke with a previous Polar Ice customer who used our dry ice for their cold cap therapy. They shared their first-hand experience of the process in an effort to raise awareness of cold cap therapy and to help others who may be searching for a way to keep their hair while undergoing chemotherapy.
“I first came across cold caps online; I started searching to see if there was a way to keep my hair during treatment and that’s when I learned about cold cap therapy on the Penguin Cold Caps website.
I contacted an Irish dry ice supplier, Polar Ice, to source the dry ice needed for use with the cold caps. They were able to put me in touch with another customer who had previously used cold cap therapy to keep their hair during treatment. It was quite reassuring to talk to someone with previous experience of cold caps and to hear that it had been successful for them.
On the morning of each chemotherapy treatment, I used a cooler box (60 quart / 50-60 litre capacity) to prepare the cold caps. First I added a layer of dry ice slices, then I placed a cold cap on top of those, followed by another layer of dry ice slices and another cold cap. I repeated this process with four cold caps in total to be used over the treatment session. It takes on average 30 – 60 minutes to cool each cold cap sufficiently and I used a hand-held thermometer to ensure the required cap temperature was reached.
“Keeping my hair gave me a sense of normality and also privacy.”
Penguin Cold Caps provided me with step-by-step instructions for this process and there was no discomfort using the cool caps. I had six chemotherapy sessions in total and I used 30kg* of dry ice slices per session.
The cold caps worked extremely well for me and I was able to keep approximately 90% of my hair. Keeping my hair gave me a sense of normality and also privacy. Everyone is different, but that privacy was important to me.”
*Penguin Cold Caps can advise on the recommended quantity of dry ice; you may need less for same-day use or more if the dry ice is collected / delivered the day prior to use. This is to allow for sublimation.
CONTACT US
If you would like to enquire about using dry ice for cold cap therapy, a dedicated member of our Customer Focus Team is here to help, email info@polarice.ie or call 057 862 3860.
If you would like to learn more about cold cap therapy to reduce hair loss during chemotherapy, please visit https://penguincoldcaps.com/.
OUR LOCATIONS
Head Office
Unit 3 Portarlington Ind. Est.,
Portarlington,
Co.Laois
R32 XR7Y
T: +353 (0)57 862 3860
E: info@polarice.ie
Northern Ireland Depot
Unit 47 CIDO Business Complex,
Portadown,
Co. Armagh
BT63 5WH
T: +44 (0)2843758045
Dublin Depot
c/o Expert Air,
Unit 42 Airways Industrial Estate,
Santry, Dublin 9,
D17 V672
T: +353 (0)1 862 3730
Cork Depot
Unit 624 Harbour Point
Business Park,
Little Island, Co. Cork
T45 RK26
T: +353 (0)21 463 4607