Kids give Locks of Love
Published: July 3, 2006
Unlike many young women who have a head full of hair and can’t do a thing with it, Amanda Brouilette has a plan.
The 13-year-old had hair to spare so she decided to donate it to a good cause.
Amanda chose Locks of Love, an organization that donates human-hair prostheses to children who cannot grow their own hair because of medical or other conditions.
This was Amanda’s second recent hair appointment with Stacey Whipple at Trendsetters. The previous week, Whipple spent more than an hour putting Amandaís hair in spiral curls for Amanda’s eighth grade graduation from Jackson Street School.
Whipple estimated there was a quarter-pound of hair in the 10-inch ponytail she cut from Amandaís head for the donation.
Amanda left Trendsetters with a lighter head and a happier heart for having helped someone else.
Kristi Young, six-and-a-half, donated a 12-inch pony tail from only the second haircut she has ever had.
Kristi’s mom, Ellen Young, said they planned to donate the hair from Kristiís first haircut but she could not part with it.
“It was so long and pretty and it still had curls at the end from when she was a baby,” she said.
Kristy is very active and shorter hair will be better for the summer, Ellen noted. In addition, Kristy and her family are getting ready for a vacation.
With Kristy sitting in her chair at the Jupiter Salon on Broadway, It took hair stylist Chris Filaccio several cuts to get through Kristyís thick locks.
Kristy was confident that her hair would be as pretty short as it was long.
In no time, she bounced out of the chair with a shoulder-length bob to suit her sunny personality.
“I felt that!” Kristy quipped, when someone reached over and touched one end of the long ponytail lying on the counter in front of her.
These girls and many others have joined forces over the past several years to donate hair to Locks of Love.
The organization was started by a retired cardiac nurse, Madonna Coffman, of Palm Beach, Florida, in 1997.
As a young adult, Coffman lost her hair after receiving a hepatitis vaccination. Then, 15 years later, her 4-year-old daughter developed the same condition. Both eventually recovered their hair.
To date, thousands of bundles of hair have been donated.
To be acceptable for donation, hair must be a minimum of 10-inches in length, tip-to-tip.
In addition, the hair must be human hair, not from wigs or falls and no synthetic hair.
Locks of Love asks donors to wash, dry and bundle the hair in a ponytail or braid. After cutting, put the hair in a plastic bag within a padded envelope for mailing.
Hair can come from men and women, any age, color or race, as long as the hair is not bleached or chemically damaged.
Colored or permanently curled hair is acceptable if not damaged. Locks of Love advises anyone considering donating hair to check with a stylist to make sure their hair is suitable.
No matter how long ago the hair was cut if it is stored in a ponytail or braid it will work.
Hair that is short, gray or unsuitable for children is separated from the ponytails and sold at fair-market value to offset manufacturing costs.
Curly hair may be pulled straight to measure the minimum 10 inches, and layered hair may be divided into multiple ponytails for donation.
Anyone may cut the donor’s hair as long as the guidelines are followed, but hair swept from the floor is not usable
Donated hair is shipped to the Locks of Love headquarters in Florida. From there, the ponytails are sent overseas where the strands of hair are separated and attached to custom-made molds to make hairpieces for the young victims.
Locks of Love receives more than 2,000 hair donations through the mail each week and 80 percent are from children and young adults such as Kristi and Amanda, who want to help other children.
According to the Locks of Love Web site, most of the children who receive the hair prosthetics do not have cancer.
As a rule, those undergoing chemotherapy will re-grow hair after the treatment ends.
Many of them have alopecia, or one of a number of genetic, traumatic, or behavioral diseases or syndromes.
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