Feeling Good Beauty And Breast Cancer

Your guide to putting your best face—and nails, and hair—forward throughout treatment and beyond.

- Jessica Migala

MACKENZIE DOUGHER T Y, 33

Diagnosed in March with triple-negative breast cancer. Had double mastectomy with reconstruction in April. Implant surgery scheduled for October. In chemo at time of photo.

“I had long, dark, luscious hair—it sounds like I’m bragging, but my coworker used to call me the raven-haired queen—and it was my security blanket. When it started coming out in clumps, I decided to shave my head—my boyfriend actually did it for me. Now earrings are my security blanket. I always used to wear studs, but these days I’m most comfortable in something big and bold and gold. Even though I can’t go out with my girlfriends like I used to, I sure can look like I’m up for it.”

EACH YEAR more than 330,000 American women look in the mirror and see breast cancer staring back at them— not necessarily in the form of the disease itself, but in the ravages of treatment. The experience can be disorienting, and even socalled cosmetic side effects are sometimes disturbing—to the point that some women decide to pause treatment. Yet doctors often overlook changes to a patient’s appearance: the loss of hair and fingernails, the rashes, the burns. “Oncologists are more likely to prepare you for things like nausea and diarrhea, which are considered more important,” says Jennifer N. Choi, MD, chief of the division of oncodermatology at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. This is unfortunate, Choi says: “It’s been shown that if patients are informed about what can happen, they are better able to cope with the illness and deal with problems caused by treatment.”