I share my hair for the women battling cancer

"Don't you ever complain about having a bad hair day. There are many cancer patients that wish they had the beautiful hair you have." ~ My Great Aunt Maxine

   Growing up I was used to getting compliments from my friends and family (and the occasional stranger) on my long strawberry blonde hair. Through-out my childhood my hair did what hair does it grew, longer & longer. I did not like going to the hairdressers as a young child so my mom finally excepted to just wait until I was ready. She occasionally asked me when I was going to cut it and my answer was often " NEVER! I love my hair!". I would let my mom trim my hair but that did not happen often! Eventually my hair was long enough to sit on since I love long hair, I didn't care that I was sitting on it.

   That summer was insanely hot since we had no AC and I had super long hair. We went to a family BBQ where like always I got tons of family touching my hair and complimenting on how beautiful & long it was. My great aunt Maxine who I did not get to see often ( maybe once or twice  year) complimented my long hair & it's color while playing with it. " Your hair is so beautiful! I love your color" My answer was something along the lines of you have the same color silly! and its not pretty today its a rats nest & I look like a rag-a-muffin. She looked at me and smiled & said I pay for this hair color and "Don't you ever complain about having a bad hair day. There are many cancer patients that wish they had the beautiful hair you have." I didn't know what to say so just said thanks and ran off to play with my cousins. She had a point though, here I was with all this hair when there are people with little or no hair wishing they had some. Little did I know that my great aunt was actually of them!

   I started looking online for how to donate your hair to cancer patients for wigs. How much do I need to cut off? Where do I go? Where do I put the hair? I found Pantene Beautiful Lengths
and started reading and thinking. I found out that I needed to cut off a minimum of 8 inches, no dye, and no more than 5% grey. Alright, I have more than 8 inches extra I can spare 8 inches no problem, dye? heck no!! no dye here and oh dear I hope I don't have grey yet! My mom came into the office while I was reading donation stories and asked what I was doing. I couldn't think up a story so I told her I am looking at donating my hair to help cancer patients feel more like themselves. Shocked she asked are you sure? and then asked about the requirements, and where we get it done & where we take the hair. We found out we can go anywhere since they have a sheet for taking to your stylist. Where does the hair go? In a ziplock, in an envelope, and in the mail.

  Summer was almost over and the entire family went for haircuts before back to school. This is it, I'm donating my hair. I will admit I was teary and worried and freaked out when the stylist said lets do your hair really short. Nope, not happening! After talking my mom and the stylist agreed on 13 inches... I however was still very nervous but gave in because I just wanted out of the chair & to be done. I'm actually really happy to say I sent 13 inches off to Pantene beautiful lengths for them to make a FREE wig for a women fighting cancer ( It actually takes 6-8 ponytails to make a wig so I guess I made part of a wig). I didn't like my new style but it was nothing a month & some positive attitude couldn't fix. Since it was my first real time at the hair dressers I had no idea what to tell her and made the mistake of letting her do what she wanted as long as my hair was kept as long as possible. Those bangs and huge puffy hair are NOT my thing! As well as the fact she spent 40 minutes styling my hair which I would never do.

   That was a few years ago now & my hair has grown long again. I have made the decision to again donate my hair and send it to Pantene Beautiful Lengths. I'm excited & hopefully the new hairstylist & I will be able to communicate better and I don't end up full out hating my hair. The "goal" this time is donate hair 8+ inches but keep it longer than shoulder length and do not touch my bangs. And no matter what, its for a good cause and some lucky women out there will have a beautiful real hair wig.

For the record here is a before picture ( of my current hair)