For women fighting cancer, one of the biggest challenges is dealing with physical changes like losing their hair. To help with that challenge, The City of Hope Orange County treated a special group of cancer survivors to full makeovers ahead of the holiday season Friday.
“(I’m) getting a little eyelash, a little wispy look, a little glam,” said Joanna Mendez, 42, a cancer survivor who spent her morning at the salon. “I feel so special right now.”
The day of pampering was made possible through a generous donation from a former cancer patient at the City of Hope. The makeovers took place at Marybelle’s Salon, which is inside the Irvine treatment center and provides free services to patients.
“Today we are having a special event for some of our patients, it’s a day of beauty,” said Annette Walker, president of the City of Hope Orange County. “When you get cancer, you have all these assaults on the body that can affect your body, mind and spirit. We try to make it a place for our patients to feel beautiful.”
Mendez said she was looking forward to feeling like herself again.
“I think along with everything else that encompasses healing, I think feeling good about yourself and looking in the mirror and feeling good about the person you see looking back at you is the healing we need,” she said.
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The Hacienda Heights resident was diagnosed with endometrial cancer in June 2023, which she said was especially devastating because her diagnosis came just two months after she lost her mother to breast cancer.
“The second hardest was losing my hair,” said Mendez. “My uterus was gone, and the only other thing I had was my hair and that was taken away from me.”
That physical change was also a challenge for Rachel Dumaine, who got fitted for a new wig.
“Being a woman, losing all your hair, your eyebrows, your eye lashes,” said Dumaine. “It’s a bit devastating. It wasn’t so much the beauty as not looking like myself and that’s really hard.”
Dumaine said she was excited about her new look and for Mendez, the day happened to fall on her birthday.
“This birthday means to me, a rebirth of the Joanna that is no longer here, but the new Joanna,” she said. “Sometimes I don’t feel beautiful, but right now, at this instance, I feel beautiful.”