Look Good Feel Better

That particular weekend was wild. Now it was time for me to attend the Look Good Feel Better program, which is a program sponsored by the American Cancer Society to help women who have cancer feel good about themselves.

The concept of this program is wonderful. They teach you how to wear wigs, scarves and make up. I decided to go and wear one of my new wigs.

Wearing a wig for me was difficult, I felt funny. Felt like everyone was looking at me different.

This meeting was held at the Cancer Institute at Riverside, so I went to see my nurse navigator Yvonne Pike. She almost did not recognize me as I had on my new wig.

I felt like it was a hat I had to show it off.

We than got in to the discussion of wigs. I had made a comment that the wigs in the Breast Cancer Book are not quite up to par for sistahs of color. She asked the question why? Now what I love about Yvonne Pike is that she is a open honest curious woman. You can tell that she is the type of person who wants to know so she can be in the know. She is not easily offended and is open to productive dialogue.

I explained that is it not just the style of the wig it the colors, the tones if you will that make the difference. African American Women are diverse women with wonderful shades that range the gambit. From the color of butter cream to rich , full mahogany to spicy pecan tan.

The wig colors that I saw in the booklet were harsh against our rich skin tones and the styles were not up to date or hip!

I also turned her on to a website called Especially Yours, this website featured wigs that were made for and used by African American Women. Now it is most certainly not the only website but it is one of the biggest with the most inexpensive wigs available. Yvonne was like cool, she was going to take a look at it and pass it on.

I than decided to check out the Look Good Feel Better workshop. It seems as if no one was there. I met 2 other ladies and we talked for a minute trying to see if anyone else would come.

I thought they were cancer patients and they thought I was a volunteer. After we had a good laugh we just decided to dispense with the formal program and have a girls day with me being the featured girl.

I than told the volunteers about me losing my hair in the shower.They seemed like it was a sad story. I was like nope, it was funny. So laugh! I was like look, I know that cancer is a serious disease and I am going to treatment that is very, very rough. However, lets laugh when we can and running my finger through my hair and it moving like a knife through butter was funny!

It was great. These 2 ladies were both hair stylist who had been trained to works with cancer survivors. The make up was awesome! MAC, Este Lauder, Lancome...I mean top of the line products. I was impressed.

As I already knew how to put the make up on, I just went ahead to put it on and we talked for about an hour or 2.

It was a great experience and I plan to go back and attend a full workshop ...just so I can see the whole program in action!