I decided, that when my diagnosis of the clump in my breast is negative – meaning it’s a good clump and not cancer – I’ll get my hair cut and donate it to women who’ve been diagnosed with cancer.
I like having long hair – I’ve had it long for the last 4 years, but I’m sometimes also annoyed of it because it’s just much too long at times. Donating my hair seemed like a great idea and after I found out that there are a few organisations who take your cut-off hair and use it to make wigs I couldn’t wait to get my hair cut.
So I did some research on where to donate and until yesterday I was sure to donate it to “Locks of Love“.
I actually wanted to donate to women my age who are diagnosed with cancer but didn’t find anything and L.o.L. seems like a nice organization. L.o.L. take donations for kids who mainly suffer from “Alopecia Areata” and not cancer, which I’d be ok with, seeing it’s terrible for kids to not have hair in any way.
I called my hairdresser on wednesday and my lovely stylist squeezed me in today at 3:30pm
Yesterday I did some more research and after reading a lot (also a NY Times article) and mainly after clicking following link: American Cancer Society I’ve decided to donate to “Pantene Beautiful Lengths” instead, although I was a bit sceptical at first to donate to such a known and big company – I never trust big companies ;).
But, there are a lot of points which made me feel very confident about Pantene:
- the wigs go to the American Cancer Society
- PBL supports women who have lost their hair through any types of cancer
- The women get the wigs for free
Here’s the Pantene WP blog.
So, here’s my journey…
At the hairdresser:
I washed my hair this morning at home so my stylist cut it dry. I told her the lenght I’d like to have my “new” hair (about 1-2cm beneath my collarbone) so she cut a little further down so that she has about 2cm left to style my hair. I feel so good now and I can’t wait to send it out to the States on monday 🙂
It’s amazing, I actually was worried to get 21cm and still keep the length I want, but a great 31cm (around 12 inches) long ponytail was cut , I never thought it would be so long. I’m very happy now 😀
I’ve found following organisations to donate hair to:
- http://www.littleprincesses.org.uk (7 inches)
- http://www.pantene.com/en-US/PanteneBeautifulLengths/Pages/default.aspx (8 inches)
- http://www.locksoflove.org (10 inches)
- http://www.wigs4kids.org (10 inches)
- http://www.wigsforkids.org (12 inches)
I recently donated my hair, too. I had no intention of doing so. I simply went to my hair dresser to get my hair chopped off. My beautician looked at how much I was willing to cut, asked if she could measure 10 inches and see if I’d be willing to cut off that much and donate it. I agreed because it’s just hair and my hair was so long to begin with. I am so glad I did it. It made me feel like I had done a great deed, especially since I had no intention to begin with. Now I feel like I’m going to always donate. My hair grows so long so fast that there’s no reason why I can’t do this every couple of years.