Today is Thursday 03.08.2017 and I am about to do something that I have been half dreading and half extremely excited about for quite some time now. Come this evening my long, luscious locks that I have spent the last 5 years growing and nurturing will be 20 centimetres shorter and on their way to the UK to be made into a wig for The Little Princess Trust (LPT).
I thought I would explain the hair donation process for anyone who isn’t aware as I definitely think it deserves more awareness. The Little Princess Trust is just one of the many organisations in the world who, with generous hair donations, are able to make wigs for people who may be undergoing chemotherapy or suffer from an condition such as alopecia that doesn’t allow their hair to naturally grow.
The requirements to be eligible to donate your hair differs depending on the organisation you choose to donate to so make sure you do your research before you make the chop. Generally to be able to donate, the donated hair will need to be:
- 30cm/12″ (or at the very least 17cm/7″) and
- of a natural colour.
* In the case of the LPT, hair that has been dyed is suitable as long as it is still a natural looking colour (no blue, red, green, etc.) but not all organisations will accept this so make sure to check first.
- Before cutting the hair will need to be washed, dried and
- Braided with an elastic band securing both the top and bottom of the braids.
There are two reasons why I chose to donate to the Little Princess Trust rather than any of the other organisations. The first reason being that the LPT makes and donates wigs
The long hair that I’ve grown for the past 5 years!
specifically for children. Although hair loss due to illness can happen to people of all ages I do believe that it is particularly beneficial to donate the wigs to children who are suffering as they are in such formative years where something as trivial as a bit of hair on their head could make all the difference to their confidence. I know that for me over the last five years, my hair has been somewhat of a security blanket for me and on days where I haven’t felt too body confident I use my hair to disguise that and almost hide from the world which is why this donation is such a big deal to me.
The second reason is because they have a very strict policy that they do not and will not under any circumstances charge for their wigs. This was important to me as I believe that charitable donations should remain as such, donations. I would not feel as though it was worth doing it if at the end of it all the children receiving the wigs had to pay a ridiculous amount of money to get them.
So without further ado, here’s my new hair…
I really wasn’t sure whether my hair was going to be healthy enough on the ends or long enough to be able to donate the full 30 centimetres without having to cut my hair to chin length, which I wasn’t really sure I was ready to do. As it turned out, my hair was plenty long enough and surprisingly healthy enough to be able to not only donate 30cm but also be able to spare myself an extra cm of hair which doesn’t seem like much but it definitely made me feel less nervous about cutting the rest off. The moment the hair dresser started to cut the braid off my stomach flipped, that was it, five years of hair care cut off in less than 5 seconds. It is so strange holding a braid of your own hair just sitting on the table in front of you and realising “I grew that?!” and the mix of pride and sadness of it being over is interesting. Is this what having a baby feels like?
New hair, who dis?
I am so happy with having short hair. As I write this it’s been 4 hours of having shoulder length hair and I am loving it! It is literally like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders because oh boy, does cutting 30cm of hair off make you feel a whole lot lighter. I keep going to flick my hair over my shoulder or tuck it behind my ear and find myself shocked to feel the ends of my hair just chilling there on my shoulder. I haven’t tried out too many hairstyles just yet but the lovely hairdresser curled it for me which is a look I will eventually attempt to recreate but I’m also excited to try out all of my usual hair styles on shorter hair. That extra centimetre should definitely help me do that.
If you are interested in donating to the Little Princess Trust to help them continue to do this incredible work then I will leave my fundraiser link here. I am sure that any donations, big or small, will be greatly appreciated by an organisation that just wants to help give sick kids a bit of normality and confidence through their rough times. I also urge you to consider donating your hair too. If you have been considering chopping it short anyway then you may as well spare a couple more centimetres of hair and do a good deed!
N.xx
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