Crow's feet and laugh lines aren't the issues at Jefferson Regional Medical Center's Look Good ... Feel Better classes on makeup and hair care. The women here are more concerned with hiding the pallor and blotchy skin that chemotherapy can cause and drawing eyebrows after the real ones have fallen out.

The free classes are for cancer patients who are undergoing or have undergone chemotherapy or radiation treatment. Usually, about 10 women, ranging in age from 18 to 70, attend.

Since 1989, Look Good ... Feel Better classes have been sponsored for men, women and teen-agers across the United States by the American Cancer Society and a trade organization of cosmetics companies called the Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association. Companies in the association offer a free tote bag of makeup to people in the classes but do not sell products there.

The American Cancer Society trains cosmetologists to teach the classes at Jefferson. One of them is Deborah A. Mancuso, who taught a class Monday.

"It's a support group,'' she said, explaining that those who attend gain a sense of camaraderie from meeting other people with similar problems.

Nurse Patricia A. Luptak, the hospital's director of oncology, attended the class. Chemotherapy, she said, can change the color and texture of skin, making it pallid and splotchy.

Mrs. Mancuso said moisturizers and sunscreen are very important because cancer treatments can dry out the skin and make it highly sensitive to the sun.

Jennifer Schoemer, a cosmetologist who attended Monday's class to prepare for teaching, said concealers also help because cancer patients can be more prone to acne and dark circles under their eyes.

Hair loss, Ms. Luptak said, is caused by radiation and some, but not all, cancer drugs. Wigs, scarves and turbans are important, she said, because patients' bodies lose a lot of heat when hair falls out.

A shoulder pad under a turban can give fullness and height, and the end of a scarf can be tied behind the head for a braided look. Velcro is another fashion statement. Tucked inside a baseball cap, it can hold artificial bangs in place.

Most women wear synthetic instead of human-hair wigs because they are less expensive and don't fade, Mrs. Mancuso said. But women have to be careful with wigs, she said, because they can be damaged by the kind of intense heat that comes from opening an oven door.

Hair that grows in might be a different color or texture. For example, a patient in Monday's class, Celine A. Dunseath, 60, of Elizabeth Borough, saw her thick black hair grow in fine and brown.

Ms. Luptak said patients lose hair all over their bodies. "You also lose your eyelashes, your eyebrows. That means a lot to a woman," she said.

The cosmetologists teach the women how to apply these features in a way that doesn't look fake, for example, by connecting dots with powdered eye shadow or light strokes of an eye pencil.

Monday's class was the second Miss Dunseath had attended since cancer forced her to quit work as a nurse's assistant at Jefferson after 15 years of service. Although chemotherapy wears her out, she said, the class taught her a makeup routine that doesn't take more than 10 minutes, inspiring her to dress up more.

And, about the techniques she learned for wearing wigs and scarves, she said, "No one knows that you lost your hair."

To sign up for a class, call Ms. Luptak at 412-469-7129.