Sunday, January 6, 2008

1 1/2 inches to go...

My hair is 21 1/2 inches long as of last night when Rob took this picture. When I hit the 23 inch mark, my hair will be cut and donated! Why am I doing this?

Why not?

It's long and strong. Never been bleached or dyed... heck, I hardly ever blow it dry anymore! I love my hair, but I rarely ever wear it down because it's always in the way. It's up in a giant bun at night to prevent it from wrapping all the way around my neck. I've even caught it in back passenger window when rolling it up-- it's that long!

Seriously though, it's just hair that will grow back for me. A by product of a healthy body that I am very thankful to have.

There are others who are not so lucky. Hair loss from any number of cancers, chemotheraphy, alopecia, etc. There are two different organizations that I am looking at for giving my hair to.

One is called Wigs for Kids, a non-profit organization that provides free custom-made hairpieces for children who have hair loss stemming from a number of illnesses. The donated hair must be a minimum of 12 inches long.

The other is Pantene Beautiful Lengths, the one Hilary Swank cut her hair off on Oprah's show for. Their hair donations go towards anyone with hair loss and your hair donation only needs to be 8 inches long.

Would you like to join me in this donation? You don't need to have the hair right now... you can pledge to grow it out for this cause. Hair can be colored with non-permanent dyes, just not bleached. For more information, both sites go over the hair-cutting process. The Wigs for Kids site also shows you where your hair goes and how it transforms from a ponytail mailed in an envelope to a new confidence boosting outlook for a child without any hair.

UPDATE: To see what happened, check out this blog entry.