Hair loss can be difficult, cancer patients say — and some want better access to options

Cairo Gregory doesn't think about her hair too often — anymore.

For much of her life, she says she didn't have the "greatest" relationship with her hair. Gregory, a 16-year-old student in Toronto, had at one point straightened her hair so much, it ended up damaged. So she cut it short — "I hated it," she said.

But eventually, as she learned to style her hair, she grew to love it. So last year, when her hair started falling out in her second week of chemotherapy for ovarian cancer, she says she found the loss difficult. Like many of those going through chemotherapy, she made the decision to completely shave her head as she started shedding.

"I think that was probably the most upsetting part for me," she told White Coat, Black Art host Dr. Brian Goldman.

"When it fell out, it was like my entire Instagram [timeline] was just hair videos, like new hairstyles because I'd gotten really into that at that point. So it really sucked when it was like something that actually really, really became important to me at that period of time."

Despite advances in cancer treatment, little has changed with respect to its effects on hair. Chemotherapy attacks fast-growing cells in the body — including hair. For many patients, that means losing their locks during treatment.

That can have an impact on a person's self-confidence and how they feel about themselves during treatment. But alternatives, like wigs and cold-capping procedures that can protect a patient's hair, are out of reach for many patients due to price and availability.

For Gregory, the problem was compounded by a lack of hospital resources and alternative hair options for people of colour, she said.

"There isn't a pamphlet that they hand out for people with curly hair to go find wigs. There should be one," she said.

Losing hair during cancer treatment can be a shocking experience. Some patients say losing hair can make the psychological burden of chemotherapy feel heavier, given they don't look like themselves.

"Obviously nobody wants to feel sick, but I didn't want to look sick," said Tammy Wegener, who was treated for breast cancer in 2022. "I wanted to feel that I had some peace of mind, that my kids had some peace of mind going through all this."

That's something Mona Rozdale says she hears often.

"At the end of the day, everybody wants to feel like themselves, and when you strip something that you're so used to having, you don't know life without it," she said.

Rozdale is responsible for the Canadian Cancer Society's wig and breast prosthetics bank lending program, which is free.

She says wigs can be a helpful solution to those facing hair loss. But they can also be pricey. On average, a good quality wig made from human hair can cost around $2,500, according to Rozdale. But cheaper synthetic wigs are starting to look more realistic.

When Gregory couldn't find a wig that fit her style — or budget of around $500 — at a hospital boutique, she opted to have her mother's hairdresser make her one at a discount.

Some people being treated for cancer have kept their natural hair with a process known as scalp cooling or cold capping.

Patients wear an intensely cold helmet before, during and after chemotherapy that constricts blood vessels in the scalp. It involves chilled caps that are swapped out regularly, or a machine that pumps cold liquid through an attached cap. In doing so, chemotherapy is less likely to reach and damage hair follicles, potentially reducing hair loss.

With limited data on its efficacy and a high price tag, however, cold capping is not widely available across Canada.

"The greatest limitation is chair time. It is a resource-rich type of use of the machine," said Dr. Shannon Salvador, gynecologic oncologist at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal and an associate professor at McGill University.

"When you have a patient who has to come for chemo every single week, that's a great deal of time for them and a lot of time in the hospital to be able to come and use the machine."

But Salvador, who has studied the effectiveness of scalp cooling, says there is evidence it does work for some patients.

In a 2021 study she co-authored, published in the journal Gynecologic Oncology Reports, over half of patients who were on a smaller weekly dose of a chemotherapy drug retained about 50 per cent of their hair when using a cold cap. The cold cap treatment didn't work for those on a larger dose.

Cold capping is not available to people with certain types of cancer, such as blood cancers, and those being treated with certain types of chemotherapy.

White Coat, Black Art reached out to several cancer centres in Canada, and found scalp cooling offered at just a handful of hospitals, often at the patient's expense.

Wegener, 49, was able to access the treatment for free at Saint John Regional Hospital after a scalp cooling machine was donated by a nurse at the institution.

Salvador says she expects hospitals will still rely on donations and external support for scalp cooling technology, rather than funding them directly.

"We need to acknowledge that, in Canada, we are in a socialized health-care system where we need to place the money where it's going to do the most benefit," she said.

"Unfortunately that does mean turning away things that are of great emotional benefit to patients, but may not play a great deal in their actual clinical care."

Cold capping was a success for Wegener, who says during her chemotherapy treatment she noticed only some thinning of her hair and eyebrows. Based on her own experience, she hopes to see it in more places.

"Not that it's for everybody and not everybody sees the results I saw with mine," Wegener said. "But I think it still should be an option for everyone."

Gregory, the Toronto student who is still anxious about her cancer potentially returning, has become more comfortable with — and without — her wig.

She went to class bald for the first three months of the school year, in part because she also lost hair on and around her face, making the wig look unnatural. But she has since confidently worn wigs to school, and now has enough of her natural hair to add in braids.

"That took a year. It's almost been a year since my hair started going back," she said.

"I think by next summer I could probably wear a ponytail wig and then hopefully, like maybe a few summers after that, I won't wear wigs anymore at all."

Produced by Colleen Ross