I’m donating my locks

I decided early in 2009 that I was going to grow my hair out to donate it to be used for wigs.  I figured that someone with as much hair as I have should do it at least once.

I had originally planned to donate it to Locks of Love.  Recently, however, I became aware of Pantene’s Beautiful Lengths program which provides wigs for women whereas Locks of Love is for children.  With the amount of gray hair that I have these days, I’ve pretty much decided to go the Beautiful Lengths route. 

However, since the Beautiful Lengths site says that donations should be no more than 5% gray, this may be my one and only donation.  Let’s face it, there’s no turning back the hands of time here.

So, when I made this decision, I talked to my hair stylist and she told me to count on about a two year commitment.  That was probably in April of last year; not even a year and a half ago. 

I went to see my stylist a few months ago and she said, “Okay, are you ready?”  I wasn’t.  So I went home and started surfing the internets and looking at pictures of what kind of style I might want.  The one I kept coming back to was a medium/short style of Rachael Ray’s.  Knowing how thick my hair is, though, I knew that it would not turn out exactly like hers. 

I gave it a couple of more months just to make sure I had plenty of length.  And then last week I made my appointment.

Today, my stylist cut about 12 inches off my hair.

She had to cut at it for several minutes before she was able to completely cut through the ponytail.  My hair is just that thick.  To give you a reference point, at the top of the ponytail, it is three inches in circumference.  That, my friends, is a lot of hair.

Then came what I believe is every woman’s favorite part of a hair cut… washing.  Here’s an in-process shot.

And even after cutting about a foot of hair off in a ponytail, you wouldn’t believe the amount of hair that she still cut off after that.  If only it could be used.  It filled up her little dustpan thingy completely.

So then we were done.  I even sprung for her to dry and style it for me… I never do that.  I’m always the one that’s headed home with a wet head to dry it myself because it just takes so dang long.

Before and after pictures:

 

And one final shot. 

If you have the ability to grow out and then cut off and donate your hair, I highly recommend it.  It’s not hard.  It’s not painful.  It’s just hair.  At least to most of us it’s just hair.  To someone suffering from cancer or another illness that causes hair loss, it’s a chance for just a little bit of normal in their life.  And personally I think they deserve a chance at just a little bit of normal.