A nurse and two-time breast cancer survivor is excited to feel girly again.

by Mick Kelly . photo by Matt Rose

Dee Ann Dewitt-Ashworth spends most of her days in scrubs. In fact, the 44-year-old sheepishly admits, that’s one of the reasons she went into nursing. “I don’t have to get fixed up,” she says. “It’s like wearing pajamas to work.”

Even if she’s been hiding out in scrubs for 20 years, Ashworth says she loves to feel feminine. Once upon a time, the Owensboro, Kentucky native considered going to beauty school. But she changed her mind once she was accepted to nursing school, and her current gig is in the anesthesia office at Park Ridge Hospital. Now, when she goes out on weekends, she still keeps things casual, wearing blue jeans and bright sweaters but very little makeup. “When my kids see me put makeup on, their jaws drop,” she says.

Her health and beauty routine (and really, everything else) changed radically in 2001, when she discovered that she had breast cancer. At the time, she was an active, healthy single mom, and the diagnosis was a shocker. “It just floored everybody—even myself,” she says. She made it through surgery and radiation treatments fine, but in 2006, she found another cancerous lump under her arm. Then, in 2008, more pre-cancerous cells, but those were easily removed. “I tell people I’ve been through breast cancer two and a half times,” she says.

Ashworth is more than ready to feel like a girl again. Last fall, she had her breasts surgically reconstructed. All her life, she’s had long hair but kept losing it after rounds of chemotherapy. Now, it’s grown to well below her shoulders, and when we discussed her makeover, she told VERVE’s stylists that she definitely wanted to keep the length. Andrea Mciaszek, a color specialist at Pat’s Hair Designers in Hendersonville, gave Ashworth’s hair a warm auburn tone with sparkling blonde highlights and big volume. To go with her elegant Donna Karan dress from The Beehive, Kelly Cook of Hendersonville’s Luna Blue Studio gave Ashworth subtle smoky eyes and dramatic lashes. The result? A radiant, sexy look that turned heads up and down Main Street in Downtown Hendersonville. “It’s been so long since I’ve dressed to impress,” she says. She certainly is now.

Hair by Andrea Mciaszek of Pat’s Hair Designers in Hendersonville. www.patshairdesigners.com.

Makeup by Kelly Cook of Luna Blue Studio in Hendersonville.

Donna Karan dress, jewelry, pashmina and shoes, all from The Beehive, a resale shop in Hendersonville. www.beehiveresale.com.