Showing Our Love

Have you heard about the organization called Locks of Love?  I heard about it several years ago through a woman at my church.  She and her daughters had beautiful long hair, and then one day they all arrived at church with shoulder-length hair.  I wondered if they suddenly decided that all of them needed a change at the same time or just what else might have caused them to cut their hair so much shorter.  When I commented on their hair cuts, one of the younger girls told me that they had donated their hair to Locks of Love.

I asked what Locks of Love was, and she told me that it is an organization that makes wigs free of charge for children who have suffered hair loss (usually due to a medical condition or cancer treatment, etc.) and cannot afford to buy a wig.  I thought it was wonderful that such an organization existed, and I even thought that maybe one day my girls and I would like to donate our hair to them, but then it slipped my mind and I never got any farther.

Over the years after that, it did enter my mind several times, but I never really checked into it.  I kept thinking that "some day" I would get more information and see about donating.  A couple of weeks ago I finally got around to actually checking it out.  The person donating her hair (or his hair) must have at least 10 inches of hair to donate.  My girls and I all have pretty long hair, but I wasn't sure if we had hair long enough to donate 10 inches and still have much left!  I got out the ruler and measured our hair and realized that, if we each got 10 inches cut off to donate, we would still have at least shoulder-length hair left.  That sounded do-able to me!

My friends know that I have more or less always had long hair.  Once or twice in my life I've gotten my hair cut pretty short, and I've never liked it that way.  For some reason, I just prefer my hair long.  On top of that, my husband prefers for the girls and me to have long hair too.  He doesn't mind if we get it cut a little shorter now and then, but he does like it longer.    When I mentioned it to him and told him what it was for, though, so he said he wouldn't mind if we got our hair cut to donate. 

So, a few days ago, off to the beauty shop we went!  My older daugher's hair was down to her elbows, so we easily cut almost 12 inches from her hair and she still has shoulder-length hair.  (She is the daughter who has autism.  I thought it would be so neat for her to be able to help another child who suffered from some kind of medical condition--even if it is very different from her own.)  My younger daughter (age 7) wanted to donate her hair as well, so we cut off almost 10 inches from hers, leaving her hair at a little bit shorter than shoulder-length.  If her hair isn't long enough to make a wig, then the company can sell it to help make the money they need to do what they do.  My hair was not quite down to my elbows, but we were able to cut almost 11 inches off, and my hair is still shoulder-length. 

It has been very strange getting used to such short hair since mine has been this short very few times in my life!  It is really neat, though, to think that 3 different children will be helped by our donations.  I feel like I should mention, however, that this post wasn't written so that we can get pats on the back for donating our hair.  It was written to bring attention to the organization so that, hopefully, some of you out there who have long hair (or have a daughter or friend who has long hair) might consider donating or sharing information about how to donate.  If you want to check out the organization, you can do that at www.locksoflove.org.  You can take a look at their donation guidelines here.

Keep in mind that they cannot accept colored hair for making wigs.  They will accept gray hair to be sold to help offset costs.  If your hair has just a tiny bit of gray in it (like mine), they can accept it for making into a wig.  (Which is one reason I decided to go ahead and donate now.  In a few years when my hair is long enough, it may have too much gray in it to be used!!)  They also accept monetary donations if you don't have long hair to give. 

Also, I want to let you know that this post was done on my own.  I was not asked to post about this organization and didn't receive any compensation.  In fact, our hair hasn't reached the company yet (there are certain guidelines for mailing it in), so they don't even know about us or our donations yet.  I simply wanted to share some information about something that I felt like was worthwhile!

Blessings to you and your family!