Friday, January 1, 2010

Hair today, gone tomorrow

For some time now, my girls have been thinking about cutting their hair and donating the cuttings to Locks of Love, a charitable organization that makes specialized wigs for children who have either lost their hair due to disease, or to cancer treatments.

I confess I had mixed feelings about this. Not because of the magnanimous gesture - of course not! - but because I loved my girls' hair. But for pete's sake, it's not as if they were asking for a nose ring or a tattoo. They wanted to donate their hair to kids who didn't have any. How on earth could I argue with that?

So on December 27, we did it.

Donated hair has to be clean, and banded at the top either in a ponytail or (preferred) a braid.

Here's my older daughter's hair:


Here's my younger daughter's hair. She was most looking forward to cutting it because of the sheer length:


Our older daughter went first. The cut hair, excluding the hair band at top, must be at length ten inches long. Here's the top band:


Braiding:


Total length, about 14 inches:


A deep breath, then snip snip!


The disembodied braid and my daughter's new pixie cut:


Next it's our younger daughter's turn. Uncut, her hair measured 33 inches:


The braid was about eighteen inches:


Snip snip!


"Wow, I feel so light!" (That's our neighbor sitting in the background. He and his wife happened to be visiting during this momentous occasion.)


The final result. Both girls were delighted with the new sensation of short(er) hair, though they both intend to grow it back again.


One daughter said, "They need the hair more than I do." The other said, "My hair will grow back. Theirs won't."

What can I say? I'm proud as can be for my daughters' wishes to donate their hair.

6 comments:

  1. That's great that it was the girls' own idea and wonderful that you documented it with before, during and after photos! My hair is long and I cut 10-12 inches off every three years or so and donate to Locks of Love. It's a great organization.

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  2. You have raised two wonderful daughters.

    God Bless.

    See Ya

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  3. My first reaction is "Oh no!", they have such beautiful hair - but what a worthy cause and how very noble of the girls to do such a thing.
    I trust their hair grows quickly?

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  4. Handmaden: I don't know if their hair grows quickly or not. We've never cut it before. Mine grows creakingly slow, but everyone's different. I guess we'll find out...

    - Patrice

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  5. My little Sis in Law does that. It is a good thing.

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  6. I also have donated to locks of love twice now, it takes me about 2-3 years to grow it out again to the point where I am ok with doing it again. I love long hair but after a while it gets difficult to take care of and let someone else have it who really needs it. Being a city folk I find a nice hair place who does the cut for free and they always seem to want to pamper me during the donation. it's the only time I visit a hair dresser and so makes a special treat for me while making me feel good that I am giving a very special treat for a person who needs my hair more than I do

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