Seminars Offer Beauty Techniques for Cancer Patients

Eighteen months ago, Fay Fox of Northridge woke up to find 50% of her hair strewn all over her bed. She touched her head and more fell out. That afternoon she got out a razor and shaved her head. Today, her chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer completed, there are traces of new growth on her scalp, but she’s not sure she wants a head full of hair any more.

“I’ve never had so many people tell me how beautiful I am before,” admits Fox, who, wearing high-fashion makeup and clothing and bold jeweled earrings, presents a dramatic, confident image.

“I decided I could just be a bald woman or I could do everything to look like I’m making a fashion statement,” she explains. “Looking my best has helped me to get through this.”

Thousands of cancer patients like Fox have faced the same problems when they underwent chemotherapy. Unfortunately, many patients don’t know how to face what they see in the mirror. They not only lose scalp hair, but eyebrows, eyelashes and body hair. With radiation treatments, skin can turn sallow or blotchy. With cancer surgery, a patient’s positive self-image can be undermined.

As an aid to women who are attempting to overcome the emotional side effects of the disease, Diane Doan Noyes, a victor over ovarian cancer, and Peggy Mellody, an oncology nurse, have written “Beauty and Cancer” (AC Press, $12.95).

The book, available at Nordstrom stores, provides information and helpful hints about how to look better, and thus feel better, while undergoing cancer treatment.

“I found that people treated me like I was sick when I looked sick,” Noyes told a group of more than 100 cancer patients who had gathered at Nordstrom’s Topanga store for a Beauty and Cancer seminar Sunday morning.

“When I looked good they treated me like a normal person.” It was that thought, she said, that inspired her to collaborate with Noyes on their book.

The authors write about special cosmetic techniques that simulate the look of eyelashes and eyebrows. They also discuss the use of foundations and blushers to add sparkle to a complexion sallowed by the disease and its treatment. There is also a major section devoted to wigs and head-wrap techniques.

“Most women aren’t comfortable shaving their heads,” Seattle-based Noyes says. “I certainly wasn’t. So I wore head wraps--dramatic ones--every single day.”

She learned by trial and error that a hairless head requires cotton scarfs--they don’t slip off and they help to retain body heat. She also learned that most stores don’t stock them.

She also found that most cosmetics advisers are not trained to show cancer patients new techniques for applying eyebrow pencil where there are no brows or eyeliner where there are no lashes. In addition, salespeople don’t always understand the functional fashion needs of cancer patients who have had mastectomies or wear some form of prosthesis.

Discussing her problems with a Nordstrom salesclerk eventually resulted in a meeting with the president of the Seattle-based chain.

Now Nordstrom carries a wide selection of cotton scarfs in every store, has trained the cosmetics advisers in special beauty techniques and has clothing available that suits patients’ special needs.

In addition, Noyes and Mellody were instrumental in creating the Beauty and Cancer seminars held this month in selected Nordstrom stores. More than 250 cancer patients have already participated.

Noyes and Mellody are demonstrating many of the cosmetic and head-wrap tricks at their seminars at selected Nordstrom stores. Seminars will be held Saturday at the MainPlace/Santa Ana store at 8:30 a.m., telephone (714) 972-2020. Also, on Sunday the seminars are repeated at the South Coast Plaza store in Costa Mesa at 9 a.m., telephone (714) 549-8300. Reservations recommended.