Teen cuts six years of hair to help others
Published: November 5, 2007
Talon Nichols hadn’t cut his hair in six years, and it was 26 inches long. So when the South Umpqua High School senior showed up well-shorn, he got some strange looks.
He hadn’t had it cut since the sixth grade, but he did so for a good cause.
He will donate the hair to an organization that makes hairpieces for children who have lost their hair for medical reasons.
“It was something I just came up with myself because I’ve grown up into a family of Christians,” he said. “So it just came to me naturally.”
He decided to wait until his senior year to do it.
Teacher John Riggs moved from Coffenberry School to South Umpqua High School this year and remembered Nichols and his hair from four years earlier.
Then, Nichols showed up with most of it gone. He’d sent it to the nonprofit organization Locks of Love.
“I decided to ask him, ‘What in the world ever possessed you to cut your hair?’” Riggs said. “I just thought it was part of his identity, of who he liked to be.”
Riggs found it remarkable that Nichols had planned to give his hair away so many years ago and stayed steadfast in his beliefs, that he knew he was doing the right thing, he said.
Locks of Love uses hair 10 inches or longer to make hairpieces that would cost $3,500 to $6,000, according to the organization’s Web site.
Most recipients are girls with an autoimmune disorder called alopecia that causes hair follicles to shut down or cancer victims who lose hair because of chemotherapy.
Nichols won’t know who got his hair because it usually takes 10 ponytails to make one hairpiece. He just gave the hair because he wanted to help out, he said.
He said no one ever criticized him for having long hair. His mother was more worried when he wanted to shave his head. A stylist talked him out of that.
Nichols said his long hair fit with his role as a drummer.
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