Hello Gorgeous! reaches even more women battling cancer with virtual option

MISHAWAKA, Ind. -- “I have come up with the term that it’s the doctors job to cure your cancer, and it is my job to make sure you look god going through it because I truly believe if you feel better going through it you will heal faster,” says Kim Becker, Founder of Hello Gorgeous!  

15 years ago, Kim Becker started Hello Gorgeous! - a nonprofit focused on helping women battling cancer by “restoring the beauty that cancer steals.” Through education and makeovers, women have the tools needed to gain back their confidence and to do so safely. What started in a mobile day spa, has expanded, now the organization partners with salons who roll out the red carpet and give these women makeovers in house. Currently, they have 33 salon affiliates in 15 different states nationwide, but because of COVID-19’s impact on autoimmune compromised individuals, the organization had to find a new way of impacting women.

“What people do not understand is cancer has not gone away. COVID has just moved to the front seat and cancer has moved to the back seat but with all you hear about COVID there is still women that have to go through chemo there is still women going through cancer diagnosis,” said Becker.

Now Hello Gorgeous! has added a new initiative, virtual makeovers, allowing them to touch the lives of even more women. Here is how it works, either a loved one or the women herself battling cancer, can purchase a virtual makeover for a small fee. A box is then delivered to the home and is to be opened at the time of the virtual call. Becker talks the women through every item gifted to them in their boxes and how to use it. Cancer patients have to take extra precautions when applying beauty products due to a weakened immune system. Because of this, Becker’s calls are not only dedicated to them feeling beautiful but doing so safely. She says that even though right now the makeovers are virtual, the impact feels all the same

“As I was telling them goodbye, I started to cry that’s my juice, knowing that those little things can make such a huge difference, those women will be forever changed, because even if its one thing even if they just took away the right way to draw their eyebrows in, that’s an impact, that’s what keeps me going,” says Becker.  

Becky Branch had first experienced Hello Gorgeous! two years ago with a full in person makeover.

“That first makeover that was the first time I felt like me, I can relax, I could rest, and just breathe,” says Branch.  

Now having recently participated in a virtual makeover, Branch says that the littlest things can make all of the difference when battling cancer.

“Knowing how to pencil in those eyebrows, and it does not look ridiculous or knowing on a day if I want to put that lipstick so that I know which one is safe for me and how to do it. Knowing those things may seem little but when everything else in your reality is tumultuous sometimes those are the things that keep you steady,” says Branch.  

As Branch is currently in the clear in her cancer journey, she has a message for any woman fighting the battle.

“I am not going to lie, cancer is awful, but there is one thing that I promised myself, and I promised God that I would not waste my story and so I want other women to know it does not have to strip everything away from you and that includes your dignity and your beauty, you are important,” says Branch.  

For further information about how you can help Hello Gorgeous!, or get involved in their virtual makeovers, you can visit here.