Keeping Your Hair in Chemo

choi

Tara Parker-Pope, Keeping Your Hair in Chemo; A frown cap, though expensive and uncomfortable, can help a woman's dignity. New York Times, Mar 10, 2015.
well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/03/09/keeping-your-hair-in-chemo/

Quote:

"The hair-saving treatment, widely used in Europe, requires a specialized frozen cap worn tightly on the head before, during and for a couple hours after a chemotherapy session.

"The scalp-cooling treatment is believed to work in two ways. By reducing the temperature of the head, the cap slows down the metabolic activity of the follicular cells in the hair, reducing the effects of chemotherapy on scalp hair. [chemotherapy kills the most actively dividing cells: cancer and various normal cells, such as hair follicles] * * * The cap may also have an effect by constricting blood vessels to limit the amount of chemotherapy that penetrates the scalp.

"Women who use the caps say they know the caps are working because they begin to lose all their other body hair, but only have mild thinning of their scalp hair that is not noticeable to most people.

My comment:
(a) chemo = chemotherapy
(b) This blog was published.
(c) There is no need to read the rest. Basically, the cap keeps the scalp close to 0 degree centigrade.