Hair Report: Locks of Love...

Both my wife and my daughter usually keep their hair pretty long, I suppose a preference that suits them in spite of the required hair washing and the subsequent grief which results in having to make sure everything is thoroughly dry before venturing out into the cold (more a problem in New Jersey where my daughter is than here in SA).

Years ago when my mother-in-law went through a bout of "The C word" and won a convincing defeat over it, there was an issue that she faced - the loss of hair associated with her treatment. For her, there was a very simple fix - a wig. In fact, her wig looked so natural, combined with the fact that she was able to obtain one that matched her regular hairstyle, it simply was a non-issue to people who had no idea of her condition.

As the family celebrated, my wife felt the urge to give something of herself - a sacrifice if you will as a thanks. Recalling the whole issue of the baldness and the wig, my wife learned about some kids who can't as easily go out and grab a fashionable hairpiece that matches their style and personality like her mother could. These people suffer from Alopecia Areata and basically, it is a disease that makes you lose patches of hair or go totally bald. If you are a young man over the age of 16 or so, this could just be a regular hairstyle and you can be the cool kid on the block. But imagine a young teenage girl entering junior high or high school - Britney Spears aside, it probably isn't their first choice for a hair style.

Enter Locks of Love. My wife heard about this organization and though they aren't directly and specifically associated with people suffering from the affects of cancer treatment, they do provide for disadvantaged youngsters who have baldness regardless of how it happened (alopecia, cancer, some other disease etc.). And because she had quite a mane of hair, it was a huge first step in giving back something.

This past week, my mother-in-law celebrated yet another check-up with fine results and no signs of cancer.

And my wife got the call from our daughter in New Jersey, that she had gone to lunch from her job in the hospital, and donated her hair in celebration.

So, off we went to the hair cut place so my wife could make her sixth donation of at least 10 inches or more of hair. And though I wasn't there to get pictures of my daughter going through the process of having her hair cut off, I did take a few happy-snaps of my wife getting several pounds of hair lopped off.

First, they start with a person who has long hair. Because they don't know if you have fleas or have been washing your hair with dog shampoo, they go ahead and give you a thorough scrubbing - or at least your hair. No sense in taking any chances, right?
Then, the nice hair cut lady gets everything dried to a point that she can work with the huge hairdo in question. In this case, my wife's hair was so thick that the lady opted to separate it into two different pony tails. With all this braiding going on, I thought she was trying out for a part in Comanche Moon as someone's squaw (geeze, I hope that isn't an offensive term).Once tied off with rubber bands, the cutting commenced. First one side...

Then the other. After a few little cuts and trims and blows and hair bows, we're done.