In January of 2012, I made a joint New Years Resolution with my sister to donate our hair before the end of the year. It was something I had never done before, but had always wanted to. I always thought my hair was too fine, but I called my hairdresser and she said my hair was plenty thick enough. So I committed myself.
All year long, I grew out my hair, only trimming tiny bits to keep the ends healthy. I was pregnant, and then nursing, and was enjoying my thicker-than-usual hair that always accompanies my pregnancies and postpartum periods.
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| Taken in June 2012, which explains the post-partum pooch I am sporting... |
Then came the dreaded time when all your extra pregnancy locks start shedding...all at once...in frighteningly HUGE clumps in the shower. Ugh. Hate that.
It was time to call the hairdresser and chop my hair before there wasn't enough to even make a decent donation.
Lou was a little annoyed that I was doing it in the first place. He LOVES long hair, and kept telling me that I was going to look like a boy. I reminded him that when he met me and fell in love with me, my hair was short - even shorter than it is now. He had nothing to say after that. :)
I found a haircut on Pinterest that I liked and made the appointment. I thought I would be nervous, but I wasn't. I was actually really excited - ready for change.
My hairdresser put my hair into two ponytails to make the cut, and I will admit, I let out a small gasp as she snipped off the first ponytail. "Too late now!", she said. And forward we went!
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| It ended up being 10 inches of donated hair |
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| What did I do?! |
I planned on donating my hair to Locks of Love. I mean, every time I heard about someone donating hair, it was always to Locks of Love. I thought it was the only game in town. And really, it sounds so heartwarming - wigs for children with cancer.
However, my hairdresser suggested a different idea. She told me that Locks of Love is so inundated with hair donations that they actually end up selling some of their hair (to wig makers, doll makers, etc). Well, if I was going to have my hair sold, I would do it myself. I'm not donating it so that someone else can make money off of it. Also, she told me that they do not give the wigs they make to children who have cancer, but that the families of the children have to purchase them. I researched all of this, and yes it is all true. Not so heartwarming after all.
My hairdresser suggested instead that I donate to a program run by Pantene Pro V called Pantene Beautiful Lengths. They do not sell off any of their hair, and do not charge for their wigs. Their wigs are donated to survivors of breast cancer. I researched their program, and found that I was much more impressed with how it is managed. Oh, and another perk? They will accept hair that is only 8 inches long, which means that you don't have to cut quite so much is you don't want to. So that is wear I donated my hair.
In the weeks preceding my haircut, Lou kept asking me WHY I was donating it? Why was it so important to me? There are a few of answers to this question.
1) I've always wanted to do it. I don't know why, I just have
2) My grandmother is a breast cancer survivor of about 35 years, so I had a personal connection there, especially to the Pantene Program.
3) Back in the end of 2007, when I had my Molar Pregnancy and had to go on light chemotherapy, I thought about the possibility of losing my hair and it terrified me. It turned out that the type of drugs they put me on where very light and didn't cause hair loss, but just was I was finishing up my treatments and being declared Molar-free in the end of March 2008, they were changing over to a new drug, one that DID cause hair loss. Luckily, I was all done before this new drug officially became the treatment of choice. If my "cancer-like" condition had happened just six months later, I could have had to deal with hair loss on top of all the other hellishness that I went through during my ordeal. The whole experience was terrible enough - I can't imagine having to become a human cue-ball on top of it.
So, I wanted to pay it forward. I had been spared that part of the cancer experience, and I wanted to donate my hair to those who haven't been so lucky. I have been complimented on my light blonde hair my entire life, and I kind of thought - why shouldn't someone else benefit from what I got to keep? After all, I can always grow more! My only regret is that I waited so long to donate, and that my hair wasn't at it's thickest when I cut it, so that I could have donated more. Oh well.
All in all, it was a great experience. A great moment to feel gratitude for what I had, for what I got to keep when others have had to lose so much (and in many cases, it is a loss of SO much more than hair..).
I'm so glad it did it.
Plus, I am loving having my hair short again. Change is good. :)
