Hair it goes! Malden resident donates foot of hair to Wigs for Kids
Published: April 7, 2006
Suffolk University Professor Norine Bacigalupo couldn’t believe her eyes when Kelly Lindsay of Malden walked into her office prior to the start of the fall semester.
“I needed a double take, even a triple take, to make sure it was her,” recalls Bacigalupo, a member of Suffolk’s Communication and Journalism Department, who has had Lindsay as a student in three of her classes over the years. “She looked so different.”
That’s because Kelly Lindsay had cut off 12 inches of her beautiful, long, flowing blonde hair. Talk about an extreme makeover. Hair today, gone tomorrow. Needless to say, Bacigalupo wasn’t the only person who had difficulty adjusting to Lindsay’s dramatic change in hair style.
“All my friends were shocked when they saw me,” said Lindsay, a senior at Suffolk who has a 3.6 grade point average as a business/accounting major. “They didn’t think I was actually going to do it.”
The reason behind her decision to chop off her golden locks was for a good cause. Lindsay donated her foot of hair to Wigs for Kids, a national, non-profit organization that has been serving children suffering from hair loss, as a result of medical treatments, health conditions or burn accidents, since 1980.
“Although I’ve always had long hair, this is something I really wanted to do,” says Lindsay, who, with her mom, Naomi, nervously looking on, had her 12 inches of hair cut at the Blue Lagoon salon in Malden. “I knew something like this would help someone else and make them happy. It’s my way of making a difference in another person’s life.
While pausing to take a sip of her coffee, she doesn’t miss a beat in describing her heartfelt emotions. “Donating your hair to a child is very touching,” continued Lindsay. “It’s like you’re giving these young people a bright spot in their lives that are pretty sad right now.”
Lindsay’s inspiration to donate her hair came a few years ago after visiting her cousin, a bright and personable young girl from Melrose who was 6 years old at the time, at Massachusetts General Hospital. She noticed that her cousin had part of her scalp shaved in order to have surgery for a blood clot in her brain, and thought how devastating that must be for anyone, let alone a child.
“I thought how bad it would be to go to school looking like that, especially how cruel some kids could be,” says Lindsay. “I knew it must be frustrating for these children and I wanted to do something about it.”
After learning about “Wigs for Kids” from her hairdresser, Lindsay decided to donate a significant amount of her hair to some child who she will never talk to or see. The important thing, however, is that she will be connected with this young person in spirit, and that brings an immediate smile to her face.
“Knowing that I helped someone else,” says Lindsay, “is all that matters.”
Helping others has been a common thread in Kelly Lindsay’s life. At Malden High School, she was an honor student - graduating in 2002 in the top 10 percent of her class - and played field hockey all four years - captain of the team her senior season. During her senior year, she also participated in the School to Career Program, where she worked as a teacher’s assistant in the third and fifth grade classes at the Ferryway School.
At Suffolk, Lindsay is president of Beta Alpha Psi, a national honors accounting and finance fraternity that heavily emphasizes academic accomplishments and community service. Over the years, she has volunteered her time in a number of ways, including working a casino night for the American Association for the Blind, and assisting in the cleanup of a national park in San Francisco for a day.
“Kelly is a happy, outgoing person who is extremely considerate of others,” said Bacigalupo. “Her long hair was a very attractive feature. I was deeply touched when I heard that she sacrificed it to make the life of a child she doesn’t even know a little bit better. That tells a lot about what kind of person Kelly is.”
Today, Lindsay works part-time for a real estate and property management company in Boston during the week and manages a Dunkin’ Donuts in Malden on the weekends. Upon graduating from Suffolk, she will be working as an audit associate for KPMG, one of the top accounting firms in the country. She also has plans of continuing her education by attending graduate school at Suffolk.
Asked if she misses her long hair, Lindsay laughed out loud. “A little bit,” she said, “but it will grow back.”
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