My Baby Donated Her Hair!

I’m just swelling with pride, honestly.  My sweet little girl made the plunge and donated her hair this week!  I’m just amazed at the courage this little one showed.

Since she was a baby, my daughter’s hair has been sort of legendary.  She was born with a ton of it and we just let it take on a life of it’s own.  It was CONSTANTLY in her eyes and it is somehow impervious to 99% of barrettes and hair bows.  Also, she hates having it washed or brushed or groomed in anyway.

I asked her for many years if she would like to cut it and donate it, but the idea was frightening to her.  I think her hair became a part of her personality, in a way.  It was pretty and soft and messy, just like her.

I never pushed her to cut her hair.  I told her I thought it was a great idea and if/when she decided to do it, we would do it, but not a moment before that.  Then, this year, for my little girl, she’s started to come into her own.  She has tackled a lot of fears and overcome some big challenges and I couldn’t be prouder of her. There’s something poetic about donating her hair to cap off this year, her tenth, and a year of astounding growth.

How To Donate Your Hair:

Step 1:  Choose the charity you would like to donate your hair to.  We chose Children With Hair Loss.  They are a non profit and they make hair pieces for children with medical hair loss for no charge.  They also had the smallest requirement when it came to the length of hair to be donated, 8″.  Others that we researched required 10-12″.  Google donating your hair and you will find many resources.  For us it was important to find a charity that did not charge its recipients and second to that in our decision was how much length was required.  Another thing to think about is whether or not the charity accepts processed or colored hair.  Many will not, but some do, so check on it if your hair is processed.

Step 2:  Get to the hairdresser.  Talk to you hair dresser.  Find out if he/she has done a donation cut before.  (It was slightly more compicated than chopping off a big braid, as you’ll see below).  I love my hairdresser and she’s cut hair to be donated many times, so I was totally confident she would do a great job.  If you’re less comfortable, print out the requirements page from your selected charity and bring it with you to the appointment. And expect some apprehension before the scissors start flying:

Step 3:  Here’s where the hair dresser takes over.  I want to be clear here.  This is not something you want to DIY.  I envisioned one big cut of a pony tail or braid at the back of my daughter’s head, but I was way off…  It looked more like this:

She sectioned it off into pieces, only at the back because the front is shorter, and then measured and cut.

And that’s the first cut.  Pretty crazy, right?  After she dry cut a bunch of precisely measured mini pony tails to be sent off to the charity, it was time to finish off the hair cut.  Because that hyper-exaggerated TBoz look is so 90’s.

 

Step 4:  Don’t forget to pop the hair in an envelope and mail it!  The hairdresser does not do this part. I don’t know why I thought that would be the case, but it is not.  You are responsible for mailing the hair to the charity.

And the gorgeous and oh my God so much easier to take care of after:

 

 

Proud of you, Sweet Pea!  Lookin’ good!!