"Make-up and beauty care boost the life force of women, because when a woman is enjoying herself more, she returns to the little flame of life that is in her heart, she projects herself into the future, gains in insurance. , takes back its place in the society and finally feels more psychologically solid to endure the treatments ", analyzes Christine Vecchionacci, onco-socio-beautician of the association Cosmetic Executive Women (CEW) which offers beauty care to the sick women.

And that is saying that the aesthetic counterbalance the explosion of treatments.

This care helps to maintain a positive self-image and not to erode self-esteem over the months.

And perhaps also to begin to rebuild by reinvesting her weakened femininity.

Beauty workshops to learn to love each other again

Makeup counseling workshops learn how to hide the after-effects of treatments (acne, rosacea ...), to illuminate the complexion, to restore relief to the eye when the eyelashes have fallen, which is suffered by one woman in three, posing a eyeliner or eyeshadow.

To redraw the lost eyebrows as well.

Because the hands represent the first social contact with others, the manicure goes well beyond the protection of the nails which, if they do not fall, are split or crack with the test of the chemotherapies.

"The simple application of a nail polish is like recognizing patients as coquette women when many suffer from no longer feeling women," says the onco-socio-beautician.

Complementary, the image consulting accompanies the corporal changes, from the choice of the wig to the development of the body.

Well-being care to soothe the body

Dermatological care restores lost skin well-being: the ultra-sensitive and dry skin is rehydrated and the pruritus is soothed. And while the discomfort is erased, the care allows to slide to a suspended moment, out of the disease.

A softness that contrasts with the aggressiveness of treatment, that imprints memory, and in which one can draw strength to fight.

Body massages, because they awaken the sensory pleasure of being touched, far from any medical gesture, reconcile with their body those who have emotionally cut themselves off.

"Many do not feel it any more and forbid it any tenderness because it betrays.The enveloping dimension of the massage makes it new.And it is often because I have massed around the scar of the mastectomy that women dare to touch each other, while they avoided their bust during the toilet, "reports the specialist.

Finally, after treatment, olfactotherapy accelerates the return of smell, altered by chemotherapy.

Equipped with paper strips impregnated with the odors of everyday life - leather, soap, cut grass, spices ... -, the olfactotherapist makes the olfactory memory work.

"The sense of smell is the only meaning also directly related to the limbic system, the seat of emotions in the brain.Thus, by making smell smell, we can reactivate the memory of those lost, welcomes Sabine Le Camus, olfactotherapist for the CEW At the Institut Gustave-Roussy in Villejuif, after three sessions, women begin to rediscover the scents, I see them recover and smile, because to succeed in feeling the smells means that the world around you lives, and that the 'we are alive in this world.'