How VEGAMOUR Is Supporting HairToStay to Empower Cancer Patients This Giving Tuesday
At VEGAMOUR, we’re uniquely able to understand how hair influences how you feel about yourself — and how you feel, full stop. Hair and confidence go hand in hand, so a fresh cut or updated hair wellness routine can help you feel both renewed and self-assured.
This Giving Tuesday, we’re proud to be partnering with HairToStay, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing financial support to cancer patients so they can afford to use scalp cooling technology, which helps preserve hair during chemotherapy treatment. By helping maintain their hair, it ensures one part of their life remains steady amid the turmoil of a cancer diagnosis.
Here’s how HairToStay impacts lives daily and how VEGAMOUR is supporting this incredible cause for Giving Tuesday.
The Emotional Cost of Chemotherapy & Hair Loss
VEGAMOUR takes a holistic and thoughtful approach to hair wellness — that goes for self care, too. That's especially true for people receiving chemotherapy to treat cancer.
Chemotherapy works by targeting any cells that multiply at a rapid pace, impacting both cancer cells and healthy cells — ultimately leading to hair loss within days or weeks. Hair loss can last through the duration of treatment, which can often be months.
Chemotherapy is essential for saving lives, but that doesn’t lessen the pain of losing one’s hair. Yes, hair does eventually grow back, but it can be years before it returns to the original length, and often not the original texture.
Scalp Cooling/Cold Cap Advantages
New technologies have emerged to preserve hair during the course of treatment — such as scalp cooling technology, or cold caps. It works by lowering the temperature of the scalp, which narrows blood vessels to reduce the amount of chemotherapy that can reach the hair follicles. Cooling the scalp also slows cell metabolism, which makes hair follicles a less vulnerable target of chemotherapy.
Automated scalp cooling systems pair a wearable cap with a refrigeration machine and are available at some, but not all, cancer treatment centers. For those receiving cancer treatment at a facility not offering automated systems, manual cold caps are portable, wearable caps similar to ice packs. They are stored in a cooler and are reapplied through the length of a given chemo session.
While often effective, scalp cooling and cold caps are rarely covered by health insurance — and without that coverage, costs can add up quickly. Combined with the financial strain that cancer can already put on patients, cold cap and scalp cooling treatments are out of reach for many.
How HairToStay Helps Cancer Patients
HairToStay works to increase the accessibility to these treatments. The organization subsidizes treatment costs for patients and also raises awareness, provides information and offers support to patients who are weighing their options. To date, HairToStay has provided access to scalp cooling and cold caps to more than 5,100 people through subsidies between $1,000 and $1,500 covering a substantial amount of the costs. It gives cancer patients one less thing to worry about — and hope they can keep their hair during an otherwise challenging time.
VEGAMOUR’s Giving Tuesday Contribution
For the holiday season, VEGAMOUR is proud to be donating $35,000 to HairToStay and helping to spread awareness about this meaningful cause. Every contribution adds up, allowing HairToStay to make a true difference in more patients' lives. Because hair is intrinsically emotional — and we want to be there on your journey every step of the way.
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