BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich. – Cold capping or scalp cooling is a treatment cancer patients can do while going through chemotherapy to help keep their hair. One woman from Bloomfield Hills used the treatment and wants everyone to know about it.
“I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma when I was 21,” Madison Novice said.
Novice is the founder and president of Cap and Conquer. She was about to start her senior year at Duke University when she was diagnosed.
“When you’re diagnosed with any cancer and you feel like, ‘I just need to figure out x, y, z, I need to figure out what’s the best chemo, where am I going to do treatment. I was going through fertility preservation, hair loss, felt like we always joke like bigger fish to fry just felt like something that was easier to put to the side,” Novice said.
That’s when her friend told her about cold capping. Her older sisters wanted to help her do it. Her sisters ended up helping her found Cap and Conquer.
You do the capping for about two hours before chemo treatments and four hours after, making infusion days last about 10 hours.
“There were so many moments throughout my treatment where I felt so disconnected from myself and being able to at least in those moments look in the mirror and see myself was so important for my morale and for my confidence,” Novice said.
Now Novice, her sisters and three friends want to educate others about cold capping. The treatment costs anywhere between $1 to $3 thousand, but Cap and Conquer is working to make sure that price tag is something cancer patients don’t have to think about.
Novice has been cancer-free for more than two years.