Possible Insurance Coverage
On occasion, patients have been able to get their insurance companies to cover some of their scalp cooling treatment cost. If you can get a prescription for a “cranial prosthesis,” you may have a chance to receive some insurance coverage for your scalp cooling treatment.
Haircare
There have been no actual clinical studies done – to our knowledge – about haircare during use of scalp cooling. However, the following suggestions have been handed down from patients and scalp cooling suppliers over the past few years:
- Do not dye, perm, or peroxide your hair prior to or during use of scalp cooling, and for at least 3-6 months afterwards.
- Do not put in hair extensions during this time.
- Do not cut your hair prior to or during use of cold caps.
- Wash your hair 3 days before and 3 days after each chemo treatment (not in between theses days).
- Your shampoo should be pH neutral with no aluminum! Most Whole Foods or similar stores will have these shampoos. Add a couple of drops of vinegar to your shampoo (if not pH neutral) each time you use it.
Things to Bring with You to Your Chemotherapy Infusion
- Neck pillow or support.
- Light blanket if your facility doesn’t provide one
- Lunch or snacks
- Gauze for wrapping ears and bald spots, if necessary and/or wrapped around moleskin for forehead if you wish.
- An assistant to help your time your caps and switch them at the appropriate time*
- Timer or stopwatch (many cell phones have this feature).*
- An infrared thermometer that reads Celsius*
* Only for manual cold caps
Other Suggestions
- See a nutritionist or nutritional oncologist before starting chemo
- Stop using deodorants containing aluminum if you haven’t already
- Visit the website of the brand of caps you plan to use, many suppliers offer information you’ll find useful.
- Visit the Rapunzel Project website where there’s a lot of useful information about scalp cooling and providers of scalp cooling systems.