How to take extra care of your skin during cancer treatment
Most people know about the hair loss associated with chemo, but as well as other side effects, treatment can also result in dull, greying skin that’s dry, sensitive, and irritated.
You may find that your usual skincare and beauty products do more harm than good while experiencing these side effects. The best thing to do is to change up your skin routine to rely on simple, moisturising products for sensitive skin.
Search for products that are gentle, hydrating, and hypoallergenic. Avoid common allergens like fragrance, alcohol, preservatives, and botanical essential oils, which can be irritating or, even cause an allergic reaction.
Moisturisers for chemo patients
Moisturisers – Try and use moisturisers regularly throughout the day to help hydrate your skin and avoid heavily perfumed based products.
Urea-based lotions – Urea based body lotions and moisturisers have been shown to be more effective in reducing dryness, scaling and itching than the usual glycerol-based creams, with 10% urea being a good amount to go for.
Hand creams – Your hands can get really dry and cracked if you’re washing them frequently or using lots of alcohol-based antibacterial gel so make sure to use a good hand cream to help soothe your skin regularly.
Moisturising Cleansers – Avoid using alcohol or water-based facial cleansers as these can dry your skin out further. Instead, chose an oil or lotion based cleanser which will not only clean your skin but keep it moisturised too.
Beauty products for cancer patients
If you’re having treatment, you might also be worried about how the therapy will affect your looks, and how you can adjust your makeup routine to help. Luckily, there are great cosmetic ranges that are formulated with gentle, natural ingredients:
Eyeshadow
Lip gloss
Lavera Glossy Lips lip gloss has a buttery, highly pigmented formula as lips are often dried by chemotherapy. It contains jojoba, shea butter, coconut oil, cocoa butter, olive oil and argan oil to help moisturise and soften the lips, without feeling sticky.
Mascara
Chemotherapy can be hard on your eyelashes, but you would be surprised what you can achieve with mascara and a few lashes. The Lavera Intensive Volumising Mascara is an award-winning mascara made from all natural ingredients and is NaTrue certified. The mascara has a specially designed lash building brush to achieve voluminous thicker lashes without clumping. It contains top-quality organic waxes to fortify and strengthen your lashes combined with soothing organic liquorice root and sea buckthorn. The mascara is also approved by dermatologists and ophthalmologists, so won’t irritate delicate skin.
Scalp treatments for hair loss
Cooling Scalp Spritzers – If you’ve lost your hair and are wearing a wig you might notice your scalp gets a bit ‘overheated’ so using a cooling scalp spritzer is an easy fix for on-the-go scalp comfort.
The Scalp Cleansing Spritz by Defiant Beauty helps to soothe and nourish your scalp, reducing itchiness and irritation.The soothing spray is also a perfect addition to your daily scalp care routine, adding a little extra moisture and antibacterial care.
Purepotion’s Skin Salvation Scalp Oil is a natural moisturising scalp treatment which has been formulated as an alternative to chemical shampoos which can strip natural oils from the skin and can dry out sensitive scalps – causing further irritation.
Scalp cleansers – If you experience hair loss during cancer treatment, the scalp can become irritated and itchy, so opt for gentle shampoos and conditioners.