Hair today, gone tomorrow - teen donates to Locks of Love
Published: January 1, 2005
“I think it’s fantastic,” said Michelle Hester, who wielded the scissors to cut the more than foot of hair, of Johnston’s decision. “I think that’s awesome. The fact she wanted to do it in the first place is great.”
Johnston attends St. Mary’s Ryken School in Maryland and took advantage of the Christmas break to get her hair cut.
She decided over Thanksgiving to yield her hair to Locks of Love and when she came home for Christmas, there’s no way anyone but Hester was going to be the one to cut it.
“She was pretty adamant Michelle do it,” mom Mary Johnston said. “Michelle can do incredible things with hair. That’s why it was important to Catherine to wait.”
“I was going to get it done over Thanksgiving break,” Catherine said. “But I wasn’t coming home.
Once Hester finished cutting the hair, she laid it on a table and then twisted it into a braid before putting it in a plastic bag to ship to Locks of Love in Lake Worth, FL.
Catherine also brought along moral support, with friends Nicki Brock, 15, who lives in Hinesville, and Kellie Brock, 17, who lives in Washington state and was in town to visit her grandparents. The Brocks share a last name, but are not related.
Catherine got the idea from her cousin Katie, who did the same thing.
“But hers was a lot longer,” Catherine said of her cousin’s hair. “It was down to her knee almost.”
Catherine said it had been about five years since her hair had been this short. It now isn’t even shoulder length.
“She said her hair will grow back,” Mary said. “But some of these kids will never have hair.”
When she told friends at school what she planned to do while she was home in Georgia, they were skeptical of how she would look afterward.
“My friends up north said, ‘You’ll look ugly without your hair,’” she said. “Everyone was telling me how pretty my hair is. But someone can use it more than I can.”
Her friends with her Wednesday at Special FX were a little more supportive.
“I thought it was pretty cool,” Nicki Brock said.
Hester said several other girls have asked her about the Locks of Love program. After Catherine filled out the form for the program, Hester finished getting the hair ready for shipment.
“I try to be careful with every cut I do,” she said. “You want to make sure you have enough. You just can’t hack away. They want to make sure they get it in a certain condition. We want to make sure when Locks of Love receives it, they get it the way they want it.”
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