ABSTRACT
The hat, a clothing element in gradual disuse nowadays, was applied to a group of women with breast cancer. We thought that its use might contribute to the maintenance of these women’s identity and self-esteem while they were hairless, which is an effect of chemotherapy. More than only wearing this accessory, they could make the hats they should wear or, in case of physical frailty, women already cured of this disease, but still under post-cancer treatment, were their colleagues’ hands at hatmaking. Besides understanding in which way the hat could be capable of helping their self-esteem and identity, we aimed at understanding how that technique could be a means of getting these women together and in which way that social relation could benefit them. We found out that the hat had created a new narrative in this group’s identity context, besides becoming a tool for social proximity.
