Recover your smile: Effects of a beauty care intervention on depressive symptoms, quality of life, and self‐esteem in patients with early breast cancer

OBJECTIVE: Medical cancer treatment is often accompanied by appearance‐related side effects such as hair loss, skin irritation, and paleness, which can subsequently lead to psychosocial distress. Initial evidence suggests that beauty care interventions may reduce distress and improve quality of life (QoL), body image, and self‐esteem immediately. METHODS: We investigated the effects of a brief beauty care intervention on self‐reported symptoms of depression, quality of life, body image, and self‐esteem in 39 female primary breast cancer patients with appearance‐related treatment side effects. Patients were randomly assigned either to an immediate intervention group (IG) or to a wait‐list control (WL). The intervention consisted of a single‐session group makeup workshop, a photo shooting, and of receiving professionally edited portrait and upper‐body photos. RESULTS: While groups did not differ regarding any measure at the pretreatment baseline assessment, IG patients reported less symptoms of depression, higher QoL, and higher self‐esteem compared with baseline and compared with WL. Follow‐up at 8 weeks indicated moderate stability of these improvements. CONCLUSIONS: In contrast to previous research, results indicate beneficial short‐term and midterm effects of beauty care on psychological outcomes in patients with early breast cancer. These results emphasize the utility of this type of brief, low‐cost intervention in women undergoing medical cancer treatment in order to improve their well‐being.