GW Admissions Student Blog: Locks of Love #6

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Locks of Love #6

As you may have noticed from some pictures I have posted of myself, I had really long hair. Well, as of a month or so ago, my long blonde hair that was down to my bellybutton is no longer. I decided to chop it all off for my 6^th Locks of Love hair donation.

What is locks of love? According to their website, “Locks of Love is a public non-profit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children in the United States and Canada under age 21 suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis.” I found out about this organization when I was in 4^th grade from one of my close friends who was growing her hair out to donate it and the more I thought about it, the more I decided that I wanted to join her in donating. So, she waited a few extra months for me, and we cut off our lovely locks together, her 13 inches and me 11 inches. Since then, I’ve gotten into kind of a rhythm; I cut my hair for locks of love, grow it out for about 2 years (with a few trims in between) and then cut it again. As I previously mentioned, I have cut it 6 times for locks of love, 4^th grade, 6^th grade, 9^th grade, 11^th grade, freshman year in college, and a few weeks ago (junior year in college).

When I donated in 9^th and 11^th grades, I did so in front of my entire high school, which hosts an annual Locks of Love Assembly where sometimes as many as 80 students donate their hair all at the same time in front of all of their classmates. All of the girls with extraordinarily long hair say goodbye to thir locks and leave school with a much lighter head of hair. It was always one of the most anticpated assemblies of the year. In fact, in 9^thgrade, Ann Curry and the Today Show came and featured our assembly on their show!

I’ve been blessed with beautiful hair and so I want to share and donate it to a great cause. I figure instead of cutting my hair and have it end up on the floor of the salon, why not cut a little more and have the haircut be meaningful.

In order to donate your hair, there are some requirements, such as the donation must be at least 10 inches and the hair must be in a ponytail or braid when it is cut. I know that some of you reading this will say, 10 inches?? That’s a lot! But, trust me, the first donation was a bit of a shock, but after that, cutting off 10+ inches of my hair all at once barely fazes me (someone pointed out to me that if we combine all the times I have donated, it equals over 65 inches! Wow!). There are some other restrictions and rules of course. If you want to read more about locks of love, here is their website: http://www.locksoflove.org/

And of course, I have accumulated pictures from the times I have donated my hair over the years. Unfortunately, I only have pictures on my computer from my donations in 11^th grade and this year.