The L'Oréal Corporate Foundation is convinced more than ever of the fundamental role of beauty and well-being treatments to accompany the road to recovery and rehabilitation. For this reason, it promotes beauty and well-being treatments in medical and social settings, carried out by socio-aesthetic therapists.
“The socio-aesthetic therapist carries out beauty treatments to members of the public who have been suffering and made fragile by an assault on their physical integrity (illness, accident, old age, etc.), their psychological integrity or are in a situation of social distress (unemployment, in prison, etc.).” Definition by CODES (Course for beauty with humanitarian and social option)
The socio-aesthetic therapist has a dual competence: recognised professional expertise in the area of cosmetics, combined with specific skills developed via a complementary training course to help them learn, for example, to work in a hospital or social structure, to manage the patient relationship, to understand the effects of illnesses and treatments, etc. They offer individual treatments and also lead group workshops.
On the road to healing
For those with an illness such as cancer, these treatments are an opportunity to discuss and get specialised advice on how to cope with many physical discomforts that can be a result of treatments: alopecia, change in nails, redness, skin dryness. Faced with the shift to ambulatory care for cancer, in February 2016, thanks to support from the L'Oréal Corporate Foundation, the Association Rose opened the first Maison Rose in Bordeaux, a place for women undergoing treatment or who have finished treatment, to go to carry out activities and get advice, in particular in the area of beauty.
Other medical domains also benefit from beauty and well-being treatments, in particular child and adolescent psychiatry, where the socio-aesthetic therapist is an integral part of the multi-disciplinary team, helping the young patients to reinvest in their body image.
In different medical departments, the work of the socio-aesthetic therapist also allows patients to learn again how to take care of themselves and strengthen their trust in the care team: the person, beyond the patient, is given care.
On the road to reintegration
The L'Oréal Corporate Foundation also promotes the advantages of beauty and well-being treatments in social structures.
In fact, for people who are socially fragile, beauty and well-being treatment workshops, hairdressing sessions and image advice sessions are, in the majority of cases, the trigger for a process that begins with reconciliation with one’s body and leads to a very concrete reintegration process.
This process is long and follows vital stages: working on body image, which allows access to better self-esteem, and thus a confidence that gives the recipient the energy to move towards inclusion.
Beauty For a Better Life call for projects
To enable more organisations to witness the benefits of beauty cares and wellness treatments, the L’Oréal Foundation is launching its Beauty for a Better Life call for projects, which is open to organisations working in medical or social settings who want to start or develop a philanthropic beauty project: hairdressing, make-up, image coaching, etc.