Locks of Hope - Donate Your Hair!

You might have heard of or even experienced donation of body parts (ok... I consider blood as part of our body, hahaha), but have you thought about donating your hair? Maybe cutting hair is just like cutting nails to you (same goes to keeping long hair and keeping long nails), the hair will always end up in the dustbin, to be precise, on the floor of the saloon. Actually, a charity called Locks of Love was started back in 1997 in Florida, United States to collect hair which will be used to make wigs for cancer patients. Hair loss can be traumatic for cancer patients who undergo chemotherapy but a wig can be too expensive to be afforded since the patients already need to pay for their medical expenses. So this kind act in helping them to regain confidence is not something really new in this world.

Hair Donation Campaign of Malaysia version! Locks of Hope brought to you by MMIS Professional (I couldn't find its official website) and supported by National Cancer Society Malaysia (NCSM) and Amber Chia Academy.
(image taken from JLBuzzBee blog)

I have a group of friends who had been planning to donate their ponytails long time ago and finally got the motivation to do so. I will always remember that day when I spent four hours accompanying them to do the donation. Chinese New Year is just around the corner and the saloon was full of people wanting to look good for this big event. But I did not regret for tagging along even though I didn't do any donation (I have not mentally prepared myself to lose my long hair which finally passed the length of annoyance, and my hair is still not long enough for the donation).

I first knew that we can donate our hair for cancer patients when I saw this photo of Khe Sin holding her ponytail on Facebook (this photo got over one thousand likes!). 

The requirements are simple:

• the ponytail must be at least 8 inches long 
• the hair must be clean and dry
• the hair cannot be bleached, permanently coloured or chemically treated
• the hair must not more than 5% grey

According to the official website of Locks of Hope, it takes 8 to 15 ponytails to make a wig. So the hair will be processed and dyed to get a uniform colour. It is important that the hair take up the dye at the same rate so that they look the same although they came from different persons. The healthier your hair, the better. However, wavy or curly hair is acceptable as well.

There are two methods you can choose from in order to donate your ponytail:

• go to one of the saloons with Locks of Hope logo (a list of saloons which provide such service can be found on the official website)
• cut your hair according to the requirements by yourself and mail it (again, for more detailed information please refer to the official website)

(from the left) Erika, Wenly and Feather, the determined girls who decided to completely make a change to their hairstyle while doing some good deeds!

When you can get a brand new hairstyle while contributing to a charity, will you do it?