Tech company Cooler Heads has received FDA clearance to sell its revolutionary scalp cooling device to help cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy save their hair. 

The clearance comes less than one year after raising less than $1.5 million in venture capital funding. 

“Scalp cooling is an effective way for cancer patients to save their hair, but existing methods are prohibitively expensive and difficult to use,” said CEO Kate Dilligan, who founded Cooler Heads in 2018.

Dilligan, a veteran entrepreneur and cancer survivor, spent more than $8,000 to keep her own hair during chemotherapy.

Cooler Heads says it has signed multiple commercial partnerships and will begin serving patients in Q1 2022.  

Dilligan notes that saving one's hair is not about vanity, instead “it's about recognizing yourself in the mirror; it's about privacy, dignity, and not letting cancer take your identity from you.”