 | Aleta Williams owns Aleta’s Bras and Lingerie, located at 5601 E. Central (SE Corner of Central & Edgemoor) in East Wichita, offers almost 50-years of experience fitting bras and giving the very best customer service. Aleta’s carries several lines of fashionable swimwear including Gottex, Miracle Suit, and Carol Woir. Aleta also works with ladies who have had breast surgeries, mastectomies, and lumpectomies. You can contact Aleta by phone at (316) 682-0132. |
Intimate Apparel
2011-10-25 11:01:44
I’ve got breast cancer – series
A: As you might recall from my previous articles in this series, most women, like you, have dozens of questions. Some of these questions might deal with a second opinion, method of treatment, alternative treatments, radiation, chemotherapy, stigmas, depression support groups, going out in public, clothes, wigs, bras, swimsuits…and a host of other topics. To know that they all fit in one of five areas, is part of the organization that will help you go about handling this challenge. These areas are: physical, mental, social, spiritual and material. We have been discussing the material side of being diagnosed with breast cancer, after treatment. Thus far we have talked about bras, swimsuits and wigs. This month, we will talk more about the hair, scarves and other accessories.
In addition to wigs, you can also buy several styles of “hat hair”. Those are hairpieces that don’t cover the whole scalp, but are designed to be worn under a hat, giving you bangs or a ponytail to frame your face. “These too have become a lot more sophisticated,” says Marianne Kelly, founder and director of the Image Recovery Center at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins Medical Center, who I have quoted throughout this series. “The hair may be on a headband, so you can switch it with different hats. We’re strongly focused on having the patient not look like a cancer patient, so these styles make more of a fashion statement.”
Many women end up wearing their wigs out in public, but relaxing in a hat or scarf (or no head covering at all) at home. Hats can be a big accessory. You can wear formal, dressy, velvet ones with pins, or wear a baseball cap all day, all summer long. There is everything from solid turbans to ready-wear caps with a short bandanna attached. Most hats for women undergoing chemotherapy are soft, to be gentle on sensitive bare skin, and have drawstrings inside to resize and accommodate wearing with or without a wig.
Many breast cancer survivors will tell you they lived in their scarves. There are long scarves you can wrap up, standard squares you can tie in a triangle, and even ready-mades that pop on your head and adjust with a cord. Worried that your scarf will slide off your bald head? Most cancer boutiques sell light “sleep caps” or padded “scarf filler” caps that keep even slippery silk scarves in place.
And of course, no guide to breast cancer accessories would be complete without a look at awareness accessories. Today, you can literally buy almost anything with the famous pink ribbon on it, from hats and socks to bookmarks, dog collars and eyeglass cases. But the perennial favorites are pink ribbon lapel pins and silicone bracelets a la Lance Armstrong, along with baseball caps and sweatshirts. “I do believe that women who have had breast cancer are on a mission for awareness, and rightfully so. And this can be their way of advertising it,” says Kelly.
I will be back next month with more…
