Comfort Shampoo Cap Works Invalid Hair Care! By Joan Young on Oct 31, 2007 - Updated Oct 15, 2011

All-In-One Rinse-Free Shampoo and Conditioner Cap Exceeds Expectations

The Comfort Shampoo Cap performed as well as it claimed. I had the occasion to try it on someone whose hair was dirty, oily, long and thick. I suspected that two applications would be required to get his hair clean, and although one shampoo cap did not get his hair as clean as two applications of typical shampoo in a shower, it performed at least as well as one home shampoo application. It was not messy; it was easy to use, and resulted in a cleaner, more attractive condition for the person who was unable to wash his hair with water at that time.

The cap comes in a sealed plastic package, which is about 6 x 9 inches, and is about 1/2 inch thick. When you open the package you remove a white shower cap which has a porous liner. The cleanser is encased between the two layers. You simply place the cap on the head of the person who needs the shampoo. If the person has long hair make sure that you tuck all the hair under the cap.

Then you massage the hair and head right through the cap. For long hair it was recommended that you do this for 2-3 minutes, and then leave the cap in place for a few minutes more to saturate tangles with the conditioner.

The person enjoyed the warm cap, and the massage. When we removed the cap I combed out his hair, and the conditioner had indeed done its job. I thought that pushing all his hair together into one confined space and kneading it would make it a mess. But it combed out quite easily. My next concern was for how clean his hair would be since he has a very oil scalp. The results were satisfactory, probably on a par with one application of shampoo at home. Two shampoo caps might have been required to match two soapings in a shower. However, for someone with shorter, or less oily hair one shampoo cap probably would do the job perfectly well.

The product is available from several on-line medical supply sources. You might also be able to find it at a local medical supply store. It lists for anywhere from $4.95 to $7.95 for one cap.

The Shampoo Cap claims to be able to remove EEG gel, blood, iodine, and other medically generated sorts of grime. I can not speak to these claims; my patient's hair was dirty just from several days of normal life, not a head injury or messy accident. The product smelled neither medicinal nor flowery: appropriate for general use.

Drawbacks of the product are few. The package is somewhat difficult to open. There is a place marked “tear here” on one corner, but I was not able to tear it without using a sharp tool, and you want to be careful not to puncture the cap inside. You need to be cautious when heating the cap. Microwaves vary, and you do not want to get the cap so hot that you burn the head of the user. Similar to when you wash a child's hair, you need to remember that the person who is doing the washing may be able to tolerate more heat than the person being washed. The use of gloves can also affect how much heat the washer will feel, while the person being washed will have the cap liner directly against his or her head.

For anyone concerned with allergies or chemicals, the list of ingredients is: purified water, isotearamidopropyl, morpholine lactate, disodium cocoamphodiacetate, DMDM hydantoin, phenoxyethanol, methylparaben, butylparaben, ethylparaben, propylparaben, fragrance and simethicone.

The price is also fairly steep for a one-time-use product. And any one-time use product is ecologically unfriendly, but sometimes this is necessary to meet medical needs.

If you are in need of a way to wash the hair of someone who cannot be shampooed in a typical fashion, the Comfort Shower Cap did a good job, was easy to use, and was an pleasant experience for the person whose hair was being washed.