The Start

Whether you're reading this because you're interested in the beauty industry, interested in cancer or cancer support, or, like me, going through treatment for cancer you might like a little intro - so just for you...

My current blog just didn't seem quite so relevant after my early December diagnosis. I wrote about my life as a beauty industry insider (still do in fact - http://ilovelipstick.co.uk), but as my posts thinned from daily to weekly to occasionally, to fit around treatment, I realised I now have little to talk about personally, aside from wig maintenance and chemo-friendly skincare.

Call it a bit of a journey I'm going through, that as a beauty editor and young woman (at the very least in cancer terms, 31 is VERY young - the first unexpected positive, yey!), how I look should be of significant importance to me. Once I stopped feeling guilty that I was so consumed with worry about being bald - how superficial of me - I realised eventually that of course I should worry about it. I am a girl after all. And unless you're going through it I don't think you can fully understand how important your changing looks can feel ahead of everything else you have to worry about. Just looking normal definitely helps to feel normal, so my degree in philosophy taught me that ergo: looking good can make you feel good. I knew that ergo thing would come in useful one day...

two months in and I can honestly say I've never had so many compliments. Sure some might be sympathetic ones, surprised ones nervous-silence-filling ones, but I don't need to hear 'but you look so amazing/healthy/fresh any more times to feel it too. Or to notice the 'but' part, like I shouldn't look any of those things. Why not? There is something to be said for putting on some heels and makeup after a week or so sloping around in PJ's, and just how refreshed (in my case ridiculously excited) that can make you feel. If that isn't important at a time like this, I don't know what is.

So this is in essentially something of a diary, if I can impart knowledge along the way, the pleasure is wholeheartedly mine, but what I discover is yours too.

Enough of the pre-waffle...onto the important stuff!

p.s. oh, and superficial doesn't even come into it. Turns out it definitely isn't just me feeling that way; Look Good...Feel Better have dedicated an entire cancer support charity to the very same issue. They realise that at a time when huge importance is placed on a positive attitude (more on that later), the demoralising and confidence-crushing effect treatment can have on appearance is so not something to be glossed over. Lip glossed over, maybe...