Week 13 Theme

I sat in the salon chair, my hair freshly washed and combed. There was something relaxing about having another person wash and comb your hair, maybe a remnant of childhood that made it feel so safe, so comforting. The hairdresser woke me from my ponderings, “So after we cut off the length, how do you want it styled?”

“I’m not sure, something a little newer, different, stylish this time. Do you have any ideas?”
She picked up a book near the counter, thumbed through it and pointed out a picture of a smiling brunette with almost the same shaped face as mine. It was a little newer style than I was used to, a little more daring, but I liked it. “Looks good,” I said, “let’s go for it.”

She got to work, binding off a twelve inch length of hair with a rubber band and then slowly sliding the shears through it. It was almost like a tearing sound, and I had to close my eyes to try to block it out. I loved having long hair and giving it up was not an easy thing to do. In fact the only thing that made it doable was that it was for a greater good, a greater cause than my own vanity. My twelve inch length of hair, sheared off from the rest, would soon be placed in an envelope and take a journey through the US Postal Service to a company many, many miles away. This company would take my cast offs and turn them into a wig for a child that had lost their hair due to chemotherapy, a child with cancer.

I heard about the program many years ago, and after watching one little girls story, her loss of that which she felt made her beautiful all in an effort to kill the monster residing in her body, her tears, her pain, it was a horrifically heart-wrenching ordeal. Then she was given a wig, made of real hair from real people who had donated it. With a wig that looked and felt real along with some penciled in eyebrows, this poor, teary eyed child was transformed into a glowing smiling princess. After that, I was hooked. For people like me, who can’t afford the thousand dollars it takes to sponsor the creation of a wig, donating hair is the next best thing.

Because of cancer or some other illness, hundreds of children lose their hair, and sometimes it doesn’t grow back. Each year companies like these donate fully completed hair pieces to disadvantaged children who can’t afford them, all around the world. Since it takes six to ten ponytails to complete one wig they are always looking for donors, and no one can deny that giving up a little vanity to give to a child in need is well worth the sacrifice.