This morning I finally did it - I got 10 inches of hair cut off to donate to Locks of Love, a non-profit organization that uses donated hair to create wigs for children who have lost their hair. Most recipients of Locks of Love suffer from either cancer or alopecia areata, an auto-immune disease that causes hair follicles to shut down. Currently, about 4.7 million people in the US have alopecia areata, although the amount of hair loss varies from person to person.
Locks of Love uses about 6 to 10 ponytails of hair to make each hairpiece (known in technical lingo as a prostheses) that would fetch a price of $3500 - $6000 retail. Each recipient of a protheses has a mold made of their head to ensure a snug fit, and the protheses attaches to the head with a strong vacuum seal that can only be broken by the wearer.
Find out more about Locks of Love and how to donate your hair at: http://www.locksoflove.org/index.html
(On a more personal note, I think I understand better why many religious orders cut entering nuns' hair as one of the final steps in their journey to full membership in the community, because I have to confess that as the scissors came closer and closer to my head, I felt a stronger attraction to my tresses than I had expected! I knew the cut was for a good cause, but what would I look like without long hair? Vanity whispers and is fought at the most unexpected places.)
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