Meet Paula Estrada: The Argentine woman who made a helmet to prevent hair loss during chemotherapy

Estrada was just 41 years old when she was diagnosed with cancer. She then developed a cap that would prevent hair loss due to chemotherapy.

Paula Estrada, an Argentine woman who was 41 at the time of her diagnosis of breast cancer in 2009, made the decision that she would not only survive the illness but also avoid having her long blonde hair destroyed by chemotherapy. Estrada, a graphic designer by trade, started making an improvised cooling hat out of ice packs at her home in Buenos Aires to keep her scalp cool and prevent hair loss.

Estrada’s device worked in two ways: by restricting blood arteries and assisting in preventing chemotherapy drugs from reaching Estrada’s hair follicles. More than ten years later, 60,000 cancer patients in Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Spain, and the United States have benefited from variations of Estrada’s helmets.

Estrada, now 54, said that it worked and that “nobody realized that I was undergoing chemotherapy.” The use of helmets has increased in the country’s main hospitals since the Food and Drug Administration approved the technology in 2017.

“I want this as a possibility for everyone”: Paula Estrada

“When I finished, I said ‘I’m not going to keep this for myself, I want everyone to have this as a possibility,” she recalled.

Gonzalo Recondo, Estrada’s oncologist and the head of clinical oncology at the CEMIC hospital in Buenos Aires, asserted that there was substantial evidence to support the possibility that these helmets would be useful.

Every 30 minutes, the helmets must be replaced, and they must be kept at a temperature of -4 degrees Fahrenheit. The helmets must be worn beginning with the first chemotherapy treatment (-20 degrees Celsius).

Estrada devotes hours of her day responding to messages from people asking for advice on how to use the helmets. She is currently a motivational speaker, a business and political consultant, and a book author about her story.

Mariangeles Fernandez, a 48-year-old liver cancer patient, says it’s worthwhile and makes you approach the disease in a different way.