Make A Childs’ Day: Donate your Hair =)

Shortly after I got married, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer.  Actually, she was diagnosed shortly BEFORE I got married, but didn’t tell us until afterwards so that it wouldn’t “ruin” our wedding.  Go figure – that’s a selfless mom for you.  Thankfully, we were (and are) very lucky, as she has been fortunate enough to fight it off for 9 years and counting!

For some time, I felt like I needed a way to show my thanks for how fortunate we were with my mom’s experience…and then I heard about Locks of Love.

It is an organization that takes donations of hair to make wigs for children who have lost their hair to chemotherapy and can’t afford a wig.  I had no idea, but apparently wigs are extremely expensive!  So, there are many people who can’t afford them after their rounds of chemotherapy.  So as a thank you for my mom, I grew out my hair and donated it in residency – and it felt great =)

Recently, I went several months without cutting my hair (more out of lack of time than anything else) and decided I would let it grow out again so that I could donate it.  I was hoping to donate it on my mom’s birthday, but it wasn’t long enough by then.

Finally last week it was, so I took it to the chopping block.  And here are the results:

No, this is not a furry animal as my husband keeps saying…it is my ponytail.

This is be before (and pregnant!)

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And this is after!  Now granted, this is with my hair blow dried from the salon, so it does NOT look like this on a daily basis.  In fact, it doesn’t look that great without styling at all.  But, it is a lot easier to deal with than that LONG mess!

If you want to donate your hair, it is really easy!  Once you have it long enough (you need a 10 inch ponytail from tip to tip), go to a salon (any one works) and have them put a rubber band around your ponytail and cut ABOVE the rubberband.  It is very important that your hair is CLEAN and in a ponytail when it is cut.  They can’t take hair that is all separate.

Then go to the Locks of love website, print out the hair donation form, and send it in with your hair.  Your hair should be in a the pony tail, in a plastic bag, and wrapped in bubble wrap or packed in a padded envelope.

Then send it to the address on the site and you’re done!

So go ahead, make a child’s day!