Take a look in the mirror for me please. What do you see? Are you happy with your appearance? Good, now think about this for a moment: While you’re staring at your reflection in the mirror brimming with confidence, there are people everywhere suffering from all kinds of diseases and illnesses, and they desperately wish they could look like you. But they can’t.
Did you know that 93 percent of chemotherapy treatments for cancer result in hair loss? Another shaking statistic according to change4cancer.org is that one in two men and one in three women are effected by cancer at some point in their lives. That means that a vast fraction of the population of the world will at some point experience cancer-related hair loss.
Alopecia is an autoimmune disease that impacts about 2 percent of the American population (roughly 6.5 million people). Alopecia causes severe hair loss and usually the inability to regrow the hair. Alopecia usually erupts in people ages 10 to 22 but will continue to complicate their lives for the rest of its duration.
For those of us who have the luxury of never being touched by such diseases, we take our appearances for granted. We shy away from those that don’t possess the same beautiful hair or healthy skin as we do. For those of you with a soft spot in your heart for the afflicted individuals, I implore you to ease their pain—even if it’s just hurt confidence—in any way you can. If you are able, make the small sacrifice of donating your hair.
There are literally hundreds of organizations and foundations that accept donated hair from willing individuals. The hair is then processed and made into a wig for a stricken patient. Some of the more notable foundations are Wigs For Kids, Locks of Love, Pantene Beautiful Lengths, and the Saint Baldrick’s Organization.
Although there are many options as far as hair-donation foundations, there are requirements for the hair to be donated. Different foundations accept varying lengths of hair, but the minimum will be at least five inches if you look into Wigs For Kids whereas Locks of Love only accepts a minimum of 10 inches. Within the last few years, the majority of hair donation organizations have started to accept dyed hair, but not bleached. Bleached hair will be promptly rejected due to the incredible damage done to the hair by the bleach.
The incredible thing about hair: it grows. That means that if it gets cut, it will eventually grow back. As a four-time hair donator, I can personally attest to the fact that hair does indeed grow back (so having short hair for a few months won’t kick off the apocalypse) and donating hair is an extremely satisfying feeling. A few inches of hair hacked off by scissors pales in comparison to experiencing severe hair loss due to a depleting disease.
On behalf of all of those who have donated hair before, the foundations accepting it and weaving it into art, and lastly, for the individuals desperate to feel beautiful again, I promise that you will not feel dissatisfied with yourself. Donating to such a cause will not only help you feel like a charitable person, and it could literally change the attitude of whoever may receive the wig that your hair helped to make.
A contribution of a few inches of hair may seem like too big of a commitment for those that love their appearance. For you, I hold nothing against you all. However, for the people who are itching for a change on their head, and allow several quality inches of hair to be swept away into a garbage bag from a salon floor, shame on you, because that hair could’ve drastically effected the attitude, confidence and overall vibe of the life of an afflicted individual.
From the friend of people effected by alopecia, and from the friend of youth cancer survivors, I implore you to make the choice. Chop it.