Life After Cold Caps: a place for ex-cold-cappers to share

Stupid, jerky ROs aside...I have a question on PFC shampooing. Has anyone's hair gotten oilier again now that they are PFC? I'm a little over three weeks out and the last couple of days it seems my hair is getting oilier faster. It didn't get hugely dry during chemo but it was drier than normal. I can't tell if it is the warmer weather or if my hair is starting to revert back to its pre-chemo state. Do you think it would be okay to start washing every other day instead of every third day? Still using cool water, of course.

My hair was somewhat oily before chemo and cold caps, then dried out. Now that I'm nearly four months PFC, it's getting oily again. It's mostly my bangs, tho, so I just wash them with mild shampoo and cool water in between the twice a week shampoos.

Has anyone had a big shedding after anesthesia?? I had my expander replaced on the 23rd and have been shedding ever since. I wanted to color my grays in a few weeks (since it will be 16 weeks PFC) but now I'm worried.

U4iachic--Don't get me started on the tattoos!! I didn't want them as a reminder of all this either and had read about others using permenant marker and clear tape instead of tats. So I went in to my simulation ready to discuss this with my RO. He preceeded to bully me into getting them...wouldn't do the rads without them, and said I needed to keep them in case of recurrence. Well that set me off for about a week constantly worrying about my odds of having a recurrence. My husband was so pissed, he demanded a new doc and is making a big stink with the hospital administration. My new MO is great, answers all my questions and listens to my concerns. He says no I don't have to keep the tats...with today's digital records they can easily replicate whatever they might need...I just need to wait until about six weeks after I complete radiation before having any laser removal done. I guess it doesn't take much to remove them...a single zap with a laser usually does it. And supposedly a lot of plastic surgeons will do it for free for BC patients. I'm planning to talk to my plastic surgeon when I have my follow up apptment with him when I finish rads in a month.

I'm also looking for hair color suggestions. I'm happy starting with a temporary or semipermanent color, but am having a hard time finding blond colors. Everything has peroxide. Have you done Nioxin yet? I'm curious if it really works.

Leslie...I'm shedding now a bit, five weeks after my surgery,but four months after giving birth...I think it may be due to the preg. Or maybe a combo. It does happen after surgery

Hi ladies - I got the tattoos. They are no big deal. Very, very small ....and I'm going to the Univ of Penn so good hospitals still do them too. If they were bigger though, I would completely get it on how you are feeling. This whole thing just sucks!!! I'm half way thru radiation and its going good. Ok, I'm thinking of getting ready to get my hair colored. I'm 8 weeks out now from last chemo treatment and can't stand it .... may schedule for next week. Using all natural, no ammonia, no peroxide, no chemicals. Hoping for the best. Anything will look better than these ugly gray roots, right?! Haven't had my hair colored since Christmas! Ugh. I am unable to get any highlights since they use bleach/peroxide. I will have to go with my dark brown original color but she can add different tones (red, copper, gold) but NOTHING lighter. I think its tough trying to do any blonde color. Shedding is minimal now... its almost back to my normal shedding pre-chemo. Best of luck, girls!! -Kim

Hi post cappers,

Typing as Herceptin enters my body. May it do miraculous work! Re coloring with the harsh, effective stuff:

I am planning to have a weave in early June, a little less that six months post final chemo. I have had blonde highlights for years, but before Cancer was gradually going with darker highlights, since I'm not the young blonde I used to be😄 I want my hair to look it's best at my daughter's end of June wedding, which means some peroxide. Will let you know how it goes!

I lost about 50% of my hair during chemo, all over, not just at the edges. It is interesting to feel my hair getting fuller all over my head as hair grows. Ponytail is thicker at the base, but sad and thin at the end. The ends of course remain thin. Will trim another inch when I do the color.

Love that I can focus on hair and the wedding rather thank chemo and Cancer recurrence

Looks like you found it Suladog.

Hi Suladog.

I think you'll find many of us colored before the recommended 6 months. A lot depends on the state of your hair. I had my hair colored at three months even though I was still shedding. I trusted my stylist (who is also my friend and well aware of the cold cap situation) to pick the gentlest color she could find. My hair is brown so I doubt there was any peroxide involved. She applied the color without using heat as I was more concerned about heat on my scalp than the actual color. It turned out great. At one month PFC you're pushing it, but since you haven't had much (any?) shedding it will probably be OK. You might want to try the no heat method however. I posted a while back with the name of the product. I'll see if I can find it. Good luck.

JC254,

Yes, I haven't had any shedding as I've been monitoring how much hair comes out after each washing, since a month before I started chemo, and it's the same. I am definitely not going to have her use any heat at all as I'm more concerned with heat on the scalp then coloring. My stylist has also been doing a lot of research for me and she does have something with no ammonia, but some peroxide, however I know she's still working on it and I trust her. I saw my mo. At UCSF today and she was amazed at my hair. I'm a redhead and mainly I just want those long grey pieces covered. My stylist did mention using some kind of henna which has no ammonia and no peroxide. If I get there tomorrow and we're not happy with how it feels I won't do it.

Jc,

my stylist has Framesi color too and that's what she's going to use. She just has to make sure she had my color, if she doesn't she'll order it and I'll do my color another day. Thanks for the tecommen

jc,

Thanks, my stylist loves it and says if I like it we may just continue with it, I gave my appointment today to my husband for a cut, people say my roots aren't that bad so we'll go to the benefit Sat night and I'll get my color next week.

I'm so happy for you Kim!! You must feel amazing! I can't wait to see some pics...what color did you end up going with? And what product did you use?

Hi everyone! I had posted about a month ago about using nioxin and having quite a bit of hair shedding afterward. It's been another month, and I was talking to my stylist about nioxin and he mentioned that it's actually supposed to make your hair shed a little bit more in the beginning because it's getting rid of the dead hair. Since I am now a little bit more then four months post final cap, I decided to try it again. There was a little bit more shedding, but definitely less than the first time, and when I used it a few days later there was hardly any shedding at all. So it seems my stylist could be right!

As I am now just about 18 weeks PFC, I think I have finally hit that magical time! I may have a few random hairs each day, but nothing compared to what it was. I think it's finally slowing down! I have started to straighten my hair again using a flat iron, but only every three days when I wash my hair. I still let my hair air dry. Baby steps.

My roots are still an issue, but I did recently buy ammonia free dye to try in another month. Though, it's only another month after that when I can actually dye my hair for real, so wondering if I should just stick it out until July and get it done really nicely! I used Color Mark on my roots, but given that my hair was dyed blond and I have brown roots, putting the color mark on my roots actually made my roots darker and stand out more.

I also cut half an inch off my hair at three months, and another inch off last week.

I'm posting a picture for everyone to see! My roots really don't look bad in this picture though, must be the lighting LOL! I feel like I'm finally getting back to normal again!

Steph, you and I have very similar profile. I had cancer taken out too but high on her2 so am starting chemo in JUne for 6 cycles and herceptin for 1 year. Plan to do the cold cap. Is it tolerable? Is it really a constant brain freeze pain for the whole solid time? and if it only stays cold for 35 inutes how do you handle that. I bought 2 caps thinking I would switch to other one but that still onyl gets me alittle over an hour??

thanks.