Pink Cupcake Walk Survivor Story: Fight cancer, keep your hair

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - In chemo you lose hair. Right? Wrong. Not always. Not anymore.

Jennifer Taylor is still receiving treatments for triple positive breast cancer. She was diagnosed last year and will finish final Herceptin on Sept. 23. She used cold cap therapy throughout her chemotherapy, and that cold cap, she says, saved her hair.

The picture above is her with the cold cap. You can see how not one hair was lost, thanks to this special treatment.

Many of you have maybe never heard of cold cap therapy, which is why I write about it now. It’s fascinating. Jennifer is one of our the over 1,000 people signed up for our Pink Cupcake Walk on Oct. 1.

You can join us by signing up here >>> https://tinyurl.com/PCWTeamMolly

Come join her walking around the Charlotte Knights baseball field.

“I am a one-year survivor,” she said. “My medical team gave me the opportunity to save my hair when they told me about cold cap therapy. It wasn’t about vanity. For me and my husband, it was about our then 5-year-old daughter. I didn’t know how to explain to her my sickness. So, with the support of family, and cold cap therapists, we gave it a try to keep me looking relatively the same.”

For 12 weeks, every Friday, Jennifer wore her -22 cap up to 5-6 hours a session.

“The idea is to freeze your head so the chemo can’t get to those hair follicles,” she says. “The caps have to be changed every 20-30 minutes so you follow a strict timeline, which becomes stressful. You also can’t use a hair dryer all week, and can only wash your hair twice a week, must use satin pillowcases, and a cold water rinse when you do wash.”

“No ponytails or hair accessories…the list goes on,” she continues. “Lots of side requirements. I thought about giving up. It was a physical and a mental mind game, but, I did it! I didn’t lose one single hair off my head. Our cold cap therapist, Savannah, said she thought my hair actually became thicker!”

Jennifer says without Savannah’s help, she wouldn’t have had the courage to train herself. She has just a couple Herceptin treatments left, and, amazingly, a full head of hair as a one-year survivor.

“I can’t thank my medical team enough for shedding light, and giving me a chance to save a part of my femininity,” Jennifer said. “You never plan for these things, but the fact I could keep my hair is everything. I kept it all!”

See more photos below.

Again, here’s the link to register >>> https://tinyurl.com/PCWTeamMolly.

Everyone who signs up before Sept. 6 is guaranteed a 2022 team t-shirt.

See you October 1st, Jennifer. We’ll all be there to celebrate you.

- Molly

#PinkCupcakeCLT #TeamMolly