I was about 17 years old when I first decided to chop off all of my hair because I wanted a change.  I ended up walking into the Mundelein Great Clips just waiting to get a regular haircut, but I ended up walking out that day helping a disadvantaged child.  I always knew what Locks of Love was, but I never knew how powerful it was to other children and how helpful it is to them.

I sat in the chair looking at my long, tangled hair, playing with it before it was all gone.  The girl who cut my hair had to braid and measure it to see if it was long enough.  The minimum length of the hair donated has to be at least 10 inches.  She ended up chopping 11 inches off that day.  I was nervous. I’ve always had long hair, and I didn’t know what to expect.  But then I thought of the benefits.  I thought of the millions of disadvantaged children who lose their hair from a certain diagnosis.  I thought what I would wish for if I was that child and how I would feel more comfortable and that is to feel good in my own body with hair to match.  These children are not just losing their hair, but they’re often losing their self-esteem as well.

Locks of Love is a public non-profit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children, under age 21, suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis. Most of the children who need the hair suffer from a disorder called alopecia areata, which causes the hair follicles to shut down.  Regular wigs that the children could possibly use are made for adults and need glue or tape to keep them from falling off of their heads.  The Locks of Love hair prosthetics are custom made for each child. They retail from $3,500 to $6,000.  The hair piece is almost like a suction cup, and it does not need glue or tape to stay on, as said on the Locks of Love website.

The hair loss that the children experience is permanent and there is no cure.  Some of them are victims to severe burns, experience radiation treatment for cancer or suffer from skin disorders that cause their hair to be gone forever.

Senior Paige McCarthy who decided to donate her locks last year, ended up getting 10 inches chopped off.  “I love my hair short now.  Not only that, but I love the fact that I got to help out children in the process.  I couldn’t of been happy with my decision,” she said.

Abbie Bennett, another senior from LHS, donated her hair as well, making a random and spontaneous appointment.  Last year, she had 10 inches cut off at a Mario Tricoci salon.

“Locks of Love is pretty cool. I’m really glad they’re helping out a bunch of kids to make them feel confident,” she said.

For Locks of Love, you don’t have to be sitting in the chair at a hair cut place; you can cut your own hair and mail it to the organization.  It still has to be 10 inches and the hair must be in a ponytail or braid when you cut it.  They do accept colored and permed hair, as mine and others were colored, but no bleached hair.

Junior Alissa Clemens shared a fascinating story that many people don’t usually do.  “It was sort of a spontaneous thing, really…I was at a New Year’s party and a few minutes before midnight, I had this impulsive urge to do something dramatically different to my appearance, so I handed my friend the sharpest pair of scissors I could find and he tied it back and chopped it all off for me. It was so liberating, after being weighed down by all that hair for so many years, to shake it free and feel nothing.”

Although senior Danielle Brooks chose Pantene, another organization where you can donate your hair, instead of Locks of Love, she still made the decision of donating her hair to the young children. “To me [it] is giving more than just hair. It’s giving someone the opportunity to live their life with one more opportunity that they didn’t have before,” she said.

On the Locks of Love website, they state, “While wearing a hairpiece is certainly not a cure for these children, it can help restore some of the normalcy to their everyday lives that most of us take for granted. It is our goal to help provide a foundation on which they can begin to rebuild their self-esteem.”

It is a common perception that only girls grow out their long locks and donate it, but guys can donate as well.  Senior Mickey Price donated his hair in eighth grade.  He got about 10 inches cut off that day and stated, “If you’re cutting your hair and it meets the criteria, I don’t see why you wouldn’t donate it.”

The aftermath of all of this is hopefully receiving acknowledgment for your donation.  Some are not as lucky as others.  For me, I still have not received a postcard of some sort and it may not ever come.  An acknowledgment is supposed to be sent to each donor within 60 days from the date Locks of Love receives your donation, according to their website.  But, in the end, you still know you have helped out a child that is suffering from more than a diagnosis.  It’s a sense of pride that you feel you’ve reached in order to help out as many children in the world as possible.