Donating Hair Can Make A Difference

Cancer sucks. It is unfortunate that the majority of people reading this have experienced the devastating loss of a loved one to this incurable disease.

I have lost two of my favorite humans to cancer—my paternal grandma to breast cancer and one of my best friends in middle school to melanoma. It creates rage, depression and uneasiness to be unable to help someone suffering from this disease.

Every time I have an in-depth conversation with someone about cancer, it becomes clear that many people want to raise awareness and support cancer patients, but they don’t know how to. Last year, when one of my aunts was diagnosed with this malignant illness, I became one of those people.

I researched ways to help and donate, and I found that the easiest way to help is not to give money or buy T-shirts and bracelets (which are also great ways to spread the message), but to donate hair to make wigs for cancer patients. When I read an article from a blogger narrating her hair donation experience, I decided to do so as well.

Every time I told someone what my goal was, they looked at me like I was crazy because nobody had ever seen me without my long hair before. They tried to convince me to donate in other ways because they said that hair takes a lot of time to grow back. Other people reminded me that if I wanted to donate my hair, I had to keep it healthy and could not dye it.

After seven months of letting my hair grow and ignoring all the criticism, I finally reached the 12-inch length needed for donation. Doing it was a challenge, but I felt that I had to. I was doing this for others, not myself.

The process of donating involves putting your hair into a ponytail and then cutting it off. I asked the woman who cut it why it is so important to motivate people to donate their hair and she answered with three main points: it can take 18-to-20 ponytails to create one custom hairpiece, cancer fighters not only suffer physically but also experience great emotional pain when they see themselves with no hair and motivating each other to do something helpful for others is what can help the world become a better place.

I urge you to donate your hair if you are able to. There are many places where you can go: Pantene Beautiful Lengths, Wigs for Kids and Locks of Love, to name a few.

If you love having long hair like me, this can be a huge challenge. But we have to remember why and for whom we are doing it. Remind yourself that you are helping someone who is suffering, even if it’s only in a small way.