In honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month we present this guest post on cosmetic tips for cancer patients.
When dealing with cancer your body goes through many different changes. This varies from person to person depending on their treatment plan. An obvious result from treatment is hair loss, but there are other physical complications that arise as well. Skin discoloration, skin dryness and sensitivity, and nail discoloration are all common side effects.
Fast fixes
These can be fixed with easy tricks. First when taking care of dry and sensitive skin it is very important to hydrate daily. Drinking a lot of water and using a moisturizing lotion goes a long way with healthiness of skin (don’t forget the lip balm!). When dealing with sensitive skin it is very important to use gentle cleansers. Cream concealers and eyeshadows are also often better than powder. Skin is very likely to flake so these are easy steps to take to avoid that effect.
There may be skin and/ or nail discoloration. To overcome these, colors for makeup and nails need to be chosen wisely. For nails it is best to go with dark colors to hide any discoloration. For makeup there are correcting concealers. A green shade of consealer will help hide redness and yellow will hide any blue discoloration. If there are dark skin blemishes choosing a consealer a shade lighter than your natural skin tone will camouflage any marks.
Everyone knows that there is hair loss during chemotherapy. Many people use wigs, scarves or simply go all natural! But there are a few tips people can use when applying makeup when dealing with hair loss. It is easy to brush on eyebrows and lashes but make sure to stick to colors that are only a tad darker than the natural hair or wig color. Small dots of eyeshadow along the lashline can imitate lashes and give a natural look to the eye.
Where to learn more
If cancer patients are interested in more tips the American Cancer society has complimentary seminars. These “Look Good, Feel Better” seminars are offered all over the country. There are also many support groups that cater to cancer patients. Support groups are usually divided by the different types of cancers, eve mesothelioma support groups.
Liz Davies is a recent college graduate and aspiring writer especially interested in health and wellness. She became particularly interested in ways cancer patients can cope with the side-effects of their treatment after her motherbecame an oncology nurse for lung cancer.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
this is a great article. thanks for sharing
Aren’t there now ways to prevent hair loss during cancer? What was it . . . scalp cooling?
Hi–please forgive irrelevant post. I’ve been locked out of the forum, having entered the wrong log in information a couple of times. I tried deleting cookies and logging in from a different computer, to no avail. Can you help? You know how I have a need to post something every day…
Sarah: The problem is not on your end. We’ve been having horrible server problems. The website was down a few days and the Forum is still messed up. We’re hoping to have it resolved soon – hang in there!!
Okay, thanks!
@N: We’re not well versed in cancer treatments but we’re intrigued by the “scalp cooling” method that you mentioned. We’ll look into it when we get a chance.
I’ve heard great things about scalp cooling/cold caps therapy. Hopefully you’ll find interesting information about it.
It is SO important for cancer survivors to feel beautiful before, during and after chemo. Thank you so much for this post.
This one should be a good wake up call not only for women but also for men since men can also have breast cancer in rare cases. Cosmetology ce should also know about this fact as well.