Meet Emma, a breast cancer patient who discovered scalp cooling upon diagnosis and discussions with her oncology team. Emma had also discovered scalp cooling via social media, through others on Instagram sharing their stories. 

Unfortunately, Emma still lost her hair during chemotherapy, despite deciding to scalp cool. She is unsure whether her hair loss was down to poor fitting, the chemotherapy regimen, or “just unlucky”. Despite this, Emma was still grateful for the impact on her regrowth. 

“I do feel if I hadn’t had cold capped, my regrowth would have been very different.”  

Based on her experience, Emma underscores the importance of correct cap fitting, saying, “I feel there is a section on my head where I felt the cold cap wasn’t fitted tight enough.” As a consequence of the loose fit, Emma reflects that she now notices her hair is thinner in that area.  

Emma explains that she was prepared for the temperature change wearing a cold cap would bring, equipping herself with a heated blanket. As she began to lose more of her hair, Emma states that she did find cold capping, “more uncomfortable but still tolerable.” 

Due to her chemotherapy induced hair loss, Emma did feel the need to wear a hat and head covering during her treatment. She says that once her hair started to fall out, she purchased “a hat, head covering and I also purchased a real hair wig.”  

Asked if she has any scalp cooling haircare tips, Emma reflected on what she would do differently.  

“If I was to do it all over again, my husband would educate and train himself in how to fit the cold cap so we would feel reassured it was fitted and doing its job.”  

Emma stuck to the recommendation of only washing her hair once a week, while also using a MANTA hairbrush for easy brushing. While Emma did not achieve hair retention through using a cold cap, she says that her hair is in great condition is now growing back, showing that cold capping helps to generate faster regrowth. For Emma, it was also important to use “no nasties shampoo and conditioner” - in other words, hair products without any sulphates or parabens. Finally, Emma recommends refraining from the use of heated styling tools during treatment and the cooling process, as well as maintaining the basic lifestyle principles of “a healthy diet and plenty of water”. 

When we asked Emma how she feels about her scalp cooling experience, Emma said “all I wished for was to keep my hair, so I did everything I could to try and achieve that.”  Emma had very long hair before she started chemotherapy, so she made the selfless decision to cut it short and donate it to The Little Princess Trust.  She goes on to say that she would “100% definitely scalp cool again”, because even though she lost her hair this time around, she “would hope for better results next time.” Due to her cancer diagnosis, Emma feels as though she lost a lot of her femininity, so she was eager to explore the possibility of scalp cooling.  

 As a finishing thought, Emma says that she would “100% always recommend scalp cooling” to others. Even though the process didn’t work for her, Emma says that she knows of others who have been fortunate to keep their hair.