Leah Shasheen, 26, never wanted to cut her hair. Her luscious, dark brown locks reached the middle of her back.

But then she lost every tress during her cancer treatment at age 23, and lost a little piece of herself in the process.

“One day you are picking out a hat. The next day you are picking out your hair,” Shasheen said. “It’s amazing how much you miss having a bad hair day when you don’t have any hair.”

Shasheen said she wasn’t used to the person she saw in the mirror. Her skin was blotchy and pale. She had dark circles under her eyes and she lost her eyebrows.

Then Lori Ovitz came into her life from the non-profit organization Facing the Mirror with Cancer.

“What Lori taught me helped me feel like it was easier to look in the mirror and see myself,” Shasheen said. “She helps you feel like you again.”

Ovitz, a professional makeup artist for more than 20 years, started doing makeover sessions with cancer patients in 1998. She specialized in makeup  for advertising and television, but wanted to help those who really needed it, “instead of making beautiful people more beautiful,” she said.

“Patients tell me they cover up all the mirrors in the house because their reflection doesn’t look like the person they are used to seeing,” she said. “But after a session they say ‘I never thought I could look like this again.”

Ovitz holds private makeover sessions with cancer patients of all ages – from painting the nails of young girls to helping adults learn how to put on eyebrows that look real. She works primarily with the cancer center at the University of Chicago Hospitals, which created a wellness room where Ovitz could work a couple of years ago.

The idea behind Ovitz’s work isn’t to pile on loads of makeup but just show people simple tricks that will make them look and feel like themselves.

To give her work further reach, Ovitz and her husband, Bruce, who is a 40-year cancer survivor, self-published a book, Facing the Mirror with Cancer: A Guide to Using Makeup to Make a Difference. Since publishing the book in 2004, Ovitz has given free copies away to all the patients she works with.

“This is the most gratifying thing I have ever done,” she said.

Dr. John Cunningham, chief of pediatric oncology at the University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital, has worked with Ovitz since he came to the hospital last year.

“When you walk into a room after Lori has been in the room, you can sense the difference,” he said.

Cunningham said Ovitz’s work can be especially important for teens.

“Imagine a young girl who has lost all of her hair as a teenager. Remember how you felt at age 13?” he said. “In this already very tough part of life, appearance is very important for their self-esteem and feeling of self worth.”

Cunningham said the patients that Lori works with end up doing better medically.

“They feel horrible about themselves – no hair, pale skin, mouth sores --  they feel unwell. Yet they still want to interact with their friends. They care about what their friends think of them,” Cunningham said. “Part of the healing process is being able to interact with your environment in a normal way.”

Cunningham said Ovitz’s work is also beneficial for his patients who are not doing so well in their treatment.

“Even children who are dying still want to have dignity and respect and some way to feel good about themselves,” he said. “One patient who was dying worked with Lori in her last few weeks. There is no question the last few weeks of her life were immeasurably different and better because of the work Lori did.”

For more information click www.facingthemirror.org

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