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Alicia Shaffer gives a head massage to John Harnage, a patient at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle. Shaffer is a program manager for Lipstick Angels. She and trained volunteers visit patients in hospitals and cancer centers to provide
beauty and wellness services.
As a Lipstick Angel, Alicia Shaffer's visits to patients at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle often include a moment of transformation.
She remembers a patient who had lost her hair and eyebrows to chemotherapy treatment for cancer. The patient perused the Lipstick Angels menu and chose the eyebrow service.
Shaffer asked: Do you want to relax during this and close your eyes? Or do you want to follow along so you can learn?
The woman opted to follow along. When Shaffer was finished cosmetically crafting new brows, she handed the woman a mirror. The woman looked at her reflection, stayed quiet, and then got tears in her eyes.
"This is the first time I've seen myself with eyebrows in more than two years," Shaffer said the woman told her. "This makes me feel pretty, and like myself again."
Lipstick Angels is a national, nonprofit organization, whose mission statement is "to compassionately support and educate people affected by cancer by providing beauty and wellness services
to inspire self-care." In addition to eyebrow tutorials, the organization trains volunteers on a list of services that includes facials, hand massage and aromatherapy.
All of the organization's volunteers are professional makeup artists and estheticians, and all are oncology-trained in the field of esthetics.
Makeup artist Renata Helfman founded Lipstick Angels in 2012. She was inspired by her grandmother, Betty Elkes, who always applied her favorite lipstick before her chemotherapy treatments, according to the organization's website. Helfman saw the lipstick
as a badge of courage.
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Shaffer prepares supplies on a cart that she uses offer facials, hand massages and other treatments to patients at Virginia Mason Medical Center.
When Helfman volunteered at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, she discovered that patients needed human touch and connection as well as wellness and beauty services. She worked with the epidemiology department at Cedars-Sinai to develop Lipstick Angels.
Selchow
Helping patients in Seattle
Virginia Mason Medical Center is part of Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, which is an affiliate of CommonSpirit Health. The hospital brought in the Lipstick Angels in 2019 but had to suspend the program
because of the COVID-19 pandemic, explained Joy Selchow, a nursing director at the hospital. Because the program was extremely helpful and useful to patients, Selchow said, she advocated with a small team to bring it back in 2022.
Lipstick Angels visit the hospital three times a week, meeting patients and their families at an inpatient oncology unit, a radiation oncology unit and two outpatient infusion centers. They don't take appointments, but many patients will try to schedule
their chemotherapy when they know the Lipstick Angels will be there.
Lipstick Angels also offer virtual, group beauty and wellness classes, as well as free virtual community classes that are open to the public. The services are available for all genders.
The Lipstick Angels program is in hospitals and cancer centers around the country, but Virginia Mason is the only hospital in the Seattle area that has the program.
"It's a true satisfier with our patients, because it's something outside of medical care," Selchow explained. "It's an alternative way to remind them that we see them as a human, not just a patient."
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Claretha Caldwell relaxes as she gets a facial from Shaffer at Virginia Mason Medical Center.
Selchow added that through Lipstick Angels' services, the hospital lets patients know that it wants to do more than routine care. "We want to pamper you as well, and we see you as this other person that is going through a lot," she said. "And we want
to acknowledge that and treat the whole person, not just the illness."
Selchow noted that sometimes patients are hesitant to go to a salon because of the risk of infection. The products Lipstick Angels use are nontoxic and considered safe for sensitive skin.
Patients are told ahead of time that it will be a Lipstick Angels day, and they can choose from the menu of services. The options include "Glow and Go," a custom makeup application; a hydrating facial; a gentleman's facial; "The Innersense Scalp Experience,"
which relieves scalp dryness and irritation with an organic scalp oil; "Easy Breezy Brows"; and a hand massage and treatment.
The Lipstick Angels check in with the nursing team when they arrive and ask if there are certain patients they should visit. Nurses know if a patient has received bad news or could use a lift to their spirits. Some patients request an appointment.
"We'll go in the morning where patients are just like: I don't want to do anything. I don't want to go anywhere," said Selchow. "And then after they get seen by a Lipstick Angel, they're a totally different person. They're more alive, they want to
talk more, because they're acknowledged as a person."
A personal touch
Sometimes patients fall asleep during a treatment, Shaffer said. Other times, patients make video calls or text photos to show family members and friends their new looks. "They are generally surprised and excited,
especially groups, which can be very fun," she said. "It often changes the mood in the room, which is wonderful to see."
Shaffer offers to pamper family members and even nurses.
Shaffer offers "that ear," Selchow said, whether it's for the patient or their families.
The hospital and Lipstick Angels often get feedback from patients. One wrote that Shaffer "arrived on a day when I had just learned that I would not be discharged. I was fairly sad and discouraged and almost declined her services. Her calm and caring
presence, her positivity and her knowledge/professional use of the variety of products was a true gift."
Another wrote: "This experience was life changing. It was a surprise that lifted our spirits and gave a humanizing experience while being in a hospital. Alicia came in, spirits were low and when she left every one of us could not stop smiling. Thank
you, thank you, thank you — I can't say thank you enough."
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Mariela Marquez, a volunteer ambassador for Lipstick Angels, massages the hands of a patient.
Bittersweetness and joy
Shaffer has a background in health care, as well as in makeup artistry. When she was looking for volunteer opportunities in 2022, she found Lipstick Angels. She applied to become a volunteer, and learned
the organization wanted to hire a Seattle program manager. She was hired for that position, and in that role she recruits and vets volunteers, facilitates staff recognition, trains volunteers, coordinates schedules, and maintains and stocks hospital
beauty kits.
"Everything kind of aligned, and I honestly feel so blessed to work for an organization whose work is very meaningful to me," she said. "It makes me feel amazing, to make other people feel beautiful. I've always had that kind of passion, but to be
able to do it when someone's going through something difficult, it's just huge for me."
She remembers one patient she had seen about five or six times. "She was a person who radiated light and joy. She didn't usually let on to how she was feeling," said Shaffer.
The woman's husband pulled Shaffer aside to tell her his wife was having a hard time with her medical treatments and their side effects. The husband told Shaffer that her visits had a huge impact on his wife, that Shaffer helped reduce stress for
both, and that the couple talked about the visits often.
"That really touched me, because I didn't realize how much it had helped them," she said. Shaffer choked up as she noted that the woman has since died.
That she is able to help others during a difficult time in their lives isn't lost on Shaffer.
"Sometimes, before I enter a room, I take a deep breath and prepare myself to be present for whomever I meet. I hope to provide a moment of peace, a supportive experience that is comforting," she said. "Sometimes, it's bittersweet, but it also can
bring a lot of joy.
"When I meet new people or encounter those we have visited before, and they are excited to see us, that is very inspiring. Knowing that we are transforming someone's day transforms my day as well."
Editor’s note: A photo
caption on this story has been corrected to note that Mariela Marquez is
the person pictured.