Losing hair a shear joy for some
Published: January 9, 2006
Amy Mercer recently hacked off more than a foot of her sleek dark locks.
Now she’s waiting to grow it out so she can chop it off again.
The 20-year-old donated her hair to Locks of Love, a non-profit organization which crafts hairpieces for financially disadvantaged children who suffer from medical hair loss.
“It’s a neat thing,” Mercer said. “I had a friend who did it.”
Mercer learned about the organization several years ago as her mother battled breast cancer. Although the wigs do not benefit adults, Mercer remembers her mother encouraging friends to donate to Locks of Love. Now Mercer hopes to bring awareness to the non-profit, which is headquartered in Florida.
Locks of Love has helped more than 1,000 children since 1997, its first year of operation.
Although Mercer has known about Locks of Love for a while, she says she “had a hard time motivating myself to part with that much hair.”
She has always had really beautiful hair, her mother, Julie White, said.
But White was glad to see her daughter go through with it.
“Hair grows. I knew it would make a wonderful gift for someone somewhere,” White said.
White was diagnosed with breast cancer in April 2000, when she was 39.
Cancer free for three years now, White says wigs are expensive, especially wigs made with human hair, which are the most realistic.
Mercer remembers how a wig boosted her mother’s confidence after she lost her hair to chemotherapy.
“She thought it would make her feel fake and didn’t intend on wearing it,” Mercer said.
But the wig kept White from having to explain why she didn’t have hair when strangers would ask why she was bald or give her strange looks.
“We went to weddings and things and you don’t want to go with a bald head,” Mercer said.
Although inspired by her mother, this was not the first time Mercer witnessed the power of a wig.
“When I was 8, I had a friend who had chemo and she was never able to grow hair back again,” Mercer said.
“It helped her through life … as she got older, it was nice to have that wig.”
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