It provides a cool head - to avoid it melting hopefully (6)
I believe the answer is:
icecap
'it provides a' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'cool head to avoid it melting hopefully' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'cool' could be 'ice' (icing is a kind of cooling) and 'ice' is found within the answer.
'head' could be 'cap' (both can mean the top of something) and 'cap' is located in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for icecap that I've seen before include "Frozen polar region" , "White mountain top" , "hard water area" , "Permanently frozen polar mass" , "Frozen covering of polar regions" .)