Hair loss is an expected side effect of common cancer treatments such as chemotherapy. However, a revolutionary new system is set to make that a thing of the past. The DigniCap has been trialled and proven to help retain the hair during high-dose cancer treatments.
One Conneticut woman involved in the trial was ecstatic to learn she might be able to keep her much loved locks. After her husband got her into the trial, Donna Tookes managed to maintain all of her hair and keep her cancer battle private.
What is the DigniCap?
DigniCap has been making the headlines worldwide after offering successful and effective results during its trial. Also referred to as a cold cap, the cooling system works by dropping the scalp’s temperature up to 37 degrees. This in turn narrows the blood vessels and slows down the cells metabolism. This makes it harder for the treatment to attack the hair follicles.
Despite its success in the trials conducted to date, there is some level of sceptism as to just how effective it is. This is because hair loss isn’t something every cancer patient suffers with. If you are diagnosed with cancer, it doesn’t automatically mean you will lose all of your hair. So some experts are sceptical that the patients the cap did work on may not have lost their hair without it anyway.
Treatment specific
It’s also possible that the cold caps may work better under some specific types of chemotherapy and not others. More studies definitely need to be carried out before they can be definitively recommended as a hair loss solution. However, for the women who have trialled the DigniCap so far, the results have made a massive positive impact in their lives.
If cold caps do make it onto the mainstream market, it’s also worth noting that they aren’t a miracle hair loss cure. Even though they can help prevent hair loss through chemo, your hair will still be a lot more vulnerable to damage than it usually is. Therefore, it’s recommended you don’t dye the hair shortly after the treatment, or expose it to heat.
Overall these new cold caps are definitely set to revolutionise the industry. Fighting cancer is hard enough, but when the hair starts to fall out it can be an especially hard blow. If approved by the FDA, cold caps would change the lives of so many women.
