Wear it Pink

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

I’ve been moved by the women who shared their breast cancer stories for this article. I’m no expert, have no lived experience of breast cancer, so this is a tribute to those women and all the others who are going through treatment, have survived or lost their lives to breast cancer. Breast cancer bulldozes its way through someone’s body and can consequently batter their sense of identity, blow apart their perceptions of body image and destroy their body confidence. But for anyone whose body has altered through illness, medication, ageing, menopause or more, we can empathise with and learn from women like Helen, Linda, Lyn and Chloe.

Treatment

Treatment isn't only brutal, but as Chloe told me, the  ‘myriad of treatment side effects… can be life long’. Women like Helen recall how they lost weight and ‘went on a spending spree’ for clothes'; treatment can have the opposite effect for others. Lyn recalls that her confidence was much more affected by weight gain. Hair loss is compounded by the loss of body hair including eyebrows and eyelashes. Linda was advised to shave her hair to preempt the distress of her hair falling out and found a wig she could be confident wearing. Helen meanwhile was happy to wear headscarves as none of the wigs she tried were her shade of red: ‘My biggest worry was that it wouldn't grow back ginger’, showing how the way that we look is linked to our sense of identity. Helen also found herself wearing more make-up than previously, feeling naked without her eyebrows and lashes. 

Wearing comfortable clothing is important. Comfort also comes from dressing in your ‘comfort zone’ of styles so you still feel like you. With constant changes to your body through chemo- or radiotherapy, the impact of aromatose inhibitors and more, it can be hard for those with the disease to recognise themselves. As Chloe explains, those with breast cancer may ‘distrust their bodies, feeling betrayed by it and having no body confidence’. Dressing recognisably as you - even through your favourite accessories if your go-to clothes don't fit or aren't comfortable - can help with body confidence.

Surgery

Lyn shared with me that she now has a dent in one of her breasts, which isn’t visible when she’s dressed and she’s been able to return to the bras she wore before breast cancer. Helen meanwhile had a tattoo (something she would never have considered back in the day) of an x-wing fighter blasting her breast! For others - particularly those whose reconstructive surgery has been problematic - wearing a bra may no longer be possible. Anna Crollman writing in a blogpost for breastcancer.org recommends the soft bras by True&Co. And many women - affected by breast cancer or not - are redefining perceptions of the female body, embracing the softer silhouette created by bralettes and bras without underwiring.

Life after breast cancer

You’ve finished your breast cancer treatment and been given the all-clear, but the impact on your body, your confidence and your style continues. As Chloe told me, ‘it takes time to learn your body’s new normal, test its limits and become familiar and comfortable with it’. Permanent damage to hair and nails, a new ‘wonky’ body shape, scars, hot flushes and weight changes linger. Some return to dressing as they did before diagnosis and treatment - but paying greater heed to protecting their skin from the sun. Others choose to grow or dye their hair to disguise permanently finer hair. Despite her overall positivity, Linda confesses she can feel ‘envious of other, older women who still have lovely, luxuriant, thick hair’. Some, aware of changes to their body shape, use pattern and colour to disguise irregularities of shape or wear necklines and accessories to draw the eye away from areas they’re self-conscous about. Lyn, like other survivors, speaks of the power of positivity, whilst Linda explains, ‘I may have been ‘cured’ but I am aware that it could return. I can laugh about it but it never goes away.’

I’ll leave you with Helen’s words: ‘I have become much more confident in my body and not afraid to bare it - I'm quite happy stripping off to jump in the sea now! All in all, I have become much stronger and confident with my body because of it.’

This short blog post is taken from my free weekly transformEd style magazine. You can subscribe via the link below.

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