On a recent day, three women gathered in a conference room at Florida Hospital East in Orlando. They looked pale and tired and seemed apprehensive.
Two hours later the same three women–Diana Woods, Elizabeth Miller and Barbara Bisson–left the room looking radiant, animated and brimming with confidence.
What a difference a hair stylist and a makeup artist can make.
The women, all cancer patients, were participating in a program called “Look Good . . . Feel Better.” Developed by the American Cancer Society, the program offers patients experiencing hair loss or skin changes the chance to have free makeovers with a licensed cosmetologist.
American women have a 1-in-3 chance of developing some form of cancer in their lifetime, according to the American Cancer Society. Many of the women who contract the disease will undergo treatments that cause their hair to fall out or their skin to become dry or blotchy or break out.
The makeovers help women deal with those cosmetic problems. Usually, the sessions include tips for wig cutting, styling and maintenance; skin care and makeup application; eyebrow and eyelash application; and techniques for wrapping head scarves and turbans.
The philosophy is simple, said Carla Robinson, a registered nurse and facilitator with the program. “When you look good–healthy and pretty–you tend to feel better.”
Also, other people tend to respond in a more positive way to patients who don’t look sickly, she explained.
“Think of it as treating the outside as well as the inside,” said the commentator on a video, produced by the cancer society, that is used to introduce the make-over sessions.
The concept seems to work.
“Before I got sick I never took much time with my appearance. I had what I called a wash-and-wear hairstyle. I didn’t wear much makeup,” said Woods, 51, a 4th-grade teacher at Fern Creek Elementary School in Orlando. She is undergoing chemotherapy treatments for non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
“But now I’m prepared to take more time because it’s so important to look good when you’re ill. When you’re wearing a wig that’s nicely styled, you can forget that your own hair is nothing but peach fuzz.
“Before, I would see these advertisements for Rogaine on TV. I’d think, `How vain those people must be.’ Not now. Your femininity is tied to your hair,” she said.
When Woods lost most of her hair and eyebrows after her first treatment, “It was traumatic, terribly upsetting. Something like this makes a big difference,” she said, indicating her new wig.
The hairpiece was being cut and styled into a becoming pixie ‘do by Amy Arenas, a hairdresser at Essentials salon in Orlando. She was joined by Ron Carnavil, a free-lance makeup artist who works at the Chanel counters at Saks Fifth Avenue and Jacobson’s department stores in the Orlando area.
Once or twice a month, Arenas and Carnavil volunteer their services to the Look Good . . . Feel Better program–as do more than a dozen of their colleagues from Central Florida.
Both stylists have lost loved ones to cancer and feel a special empathy for their clients.
While Arenas was styling Woods’ wig, Carnavil started on Elizabeth Miller’s makeup. “I haven’t worn makeup for a year–ever since I first started feeling sick,” said Miller, a 26-year-old Kissimmee, Fla., woman who worked as a billing clerk for a medical answering service before being diagnosed with colon cancer.
“I decided it’s time I went back to wearing makeup. I want to look my best, and I thought it might pick up my spirits. But I needed a refresher course. I saw an article about this program in Self magazine and decided to give it a try.”
Her response to Carnavil’s makeover: “Wow! You did a good job. I have color again, but it still looks natural, not made up. What a difference.”
Finally, the cosmetologists turned their attention to Barbara Bisson, 55, a nurse from Kissimmee, who is about to start chemotherapy treatments for breast cancer.
“I want to be ready for what may happen when my treatments begin. Like, what do I do when my eyebrows fall out?” Bisson said. To determine where to draw in the brows, Carnavil offered the following formula: Take an eyebrow pencil and align it with the outside of the nostril and the inner corner of the eye. Where the pencil crosses the brow bone, make a dot to mark the start of the brow. Swivel the pencil from the nostril to the outer corner of the eye, and make a second dot where the pencil crosses the brow bone. This marks the end of the brow. Finally, to find the high point of the brow’s arch, look straight ahead and mark the spot on the brow bone directly above the pupil of the eye.
“Then just connect the dots, using short, light strokes,” he said.
Before leaving, each woman was presented with a bag of cosmetics, all donated by the national Cosmetology Association.
“A worthwhile two hours,” Woods declared. “I do feel better.”
