Advice for aide to help client with scalp and hair

[PhillyRNtoBe]

I'm a Home Health Aide hired to provide care to a Hospice Client. She is new to hospice, alert, oriented with continuos oxygen. She is funny, feisty, micromanages everyone and everything in her life. She cares more about her hair then anything else and I'm at a loss helping her with it.

She is starting get very depressed because she stopped going to the hair dresser 3 weeks ago. She won't let her friends come up and see her. She is practically bed bound except to go to the commode. Each week it getting harder and harder for her to even do that.

We wash her up on the commode, etc. but she hasn't had her hair properly washed since going to the beauty shop. She thinks that we can still try to go but there is no way it's happening anymore. I finally got her to buy Dry Shampoo. She used it once and will not use it again. She will not do anything in the bed, she is mortified that she has to eat in bed. We only have 2 pink basins, only 1 is for washing. She can't lay flat because she has CHF and can't breathe so she will not allow anyone to lay her back in bed or anything.

She says she is ok with getting witch hazel rubbed on her scalp every so often and that's it. However she would like to have it curled etc.

Do you have any thoughts, or suggestions to help me-help her with her hair. She is just starting to complain that she is itching. I feel like I need to do more but I have limited supplies as well.

[Shamekasmoore]

There are plenty of hair dressers that will come to the person's home and fix their hair.

[PhillyRNtoBe]

There are plenty of hair dressers that will come to the person's home and fix their hair.

This is true, haha. I guess I'm going to have to talk to her family because there isn't much else I can do. I'm just worried about skin breakdown and infection. I don't want to be questioned about her hair not being washed for 3 weeks but I can only do so much.

[JustBeachyNurse, LPN]

In the interim there are shower caps filled with shampoo. Ask your agency they should know hairdressers that make house calls. .

[toomuchbaloney]

My spouse's parent died with COPD in hospice.

She also was unable to lie flat and hated hair washing products.

She was able to sit with her back to the kitchen sink with her head resting on a rolled towel so that her hair could be sprayed, washed, and rinsed with only a small mess to show for it. The effort was worth the time and trouble.

[jdub6]

You could also do some scouting online. I saw a product once, don't know what it was called but looked fairly inexpensive, could be easily cleaned and portable if you wanted to add it to your own orificenal, otherwise the pt/family could buy: it was a plastic (vinyl maybe?) Inflatable...thing, you could blow it up like an air pillow except it was shaped like a big basin, but with like an indent in one side for the pts head and then a drainage hose coming from the bottom that was open-ended so you could put it anywhere: sink, bathtub, basin, bucket. If you put towels around the person's neck you could do a decent job with a real hair wash in bed. I have no clue where they got it and I'm not describing it well at all but maybe check medical supply websites? If you see it you will know exactly what I'm talking about. It was pretty cool.

Edit: googled "inflatable hair wash" and got lots of hits, this was first and it looked like this: Amazon.com: Hair Wash Basin Inflatable Ez Shampoo For Disabled: Beauty

The pic shows the lady lying flat but I bet you could use it in a chair with the pt head back on a counter or something too.

[Nurse Leigh]

I know this thread is a couple months old but here are some items found through an Amazon search.

We use a hard tray for my mom (she has a tilting wheelchair) that might work.

Thank you for caring for your patient.

Amazon.com: Shampoo Basins & Trays - Bathroom Safety, Aids & Accessories: Health & Personal Care