Google “beautiful woman” and an array of pictures will come up, but there is one thing almost all of the women have in common: long hair. From personal experience, I know hair can serve as a security blanket for some and as a defining trait for others. And let’s be real -- who doesn’t like to pretend they’re a mermaid on the beach? But take a step back and imagine losing all of it. It’s true that long hair is beautiful, so what I’m about to tell you might contradict what I’ve been talking about, but I think you should cut it off.

Now before you gasp and close this tab, I want to be clear with my intentions. I’m not telling you to cut your hair off because I think your long hair makes you look younger than you actually are. I’m not telling you to cut your hair because I want this boy to like me more than he likes you, and I’m certainly not telling you to cut your hair because I’m jealous that your hair is long. In fact your hair is beautiful just the way it is, but I’m going to tell you to cut it off because someone else needs it more than you do. I know it’s a scary thought, and that’s because chopping off most of your hair is scary, but it is nothing in comparison to the battle cancer patients fight, the internal struggle people diagnosed with alopecia face, or the moment someone is told all of their hair will fall out as a result of the treatment necessary for their disease.

I’ve donated my hair to Pantene Beautiful Lengths four times. After the first 13-inch chop, I had absolutely no desire to ever cut my hair again. It wasn’t until my freshman year of college, when one of my friends passed away from leukemia that I looked at myself in the mirror and noticed that my long curly hair had grown so much that it reached my hips. I went to the salon the next day and chopped it so that someone who had lost all of their hair could have some of mine, because I had plenty to spare. I’ve always had the kind of hair that does what I want it to. A sock bun on top of my head? No problem. Natural curls when I get out of bed? Easy. I’ve always loved a fishtail, a french braid, a regular ponytail -- I loved them all. I loved my hair. I just didn’t need my hair.

In August 2014, I donated 10 inches for my favorite 6-year-old battling cancer, and earlier this month I donated 8 inches for a woman I look up to and admire so much. Each time I donate, I walk out of the salon a little bit happier, with a full heart, and with hair shorter than I know what to do with. But I don’t have a bowl cut, I don’t have a pixie, and I don’t have a breakdown. I just have shorter hair. My hair didn’t change who I was, nor did it change who I’m going to be. I simply left knowing that I made a difference in a person’s life I will probably never meet -- and being a complete stranger's hero in itself is humbling.

I don’t tell you all of this to convince you that I’m a great person. In fact, I am not better than you, I am not holier than thou, and I am certainly not trying to guilt you for loving your beautiful, long hair. I do, however, tell you these things in hopes that you will cut it off. I’m not telling you to donate your hair because it will make that person fall in love with you, resolve the sins you committed last week, help you win the lottery or raise your pay grade. It won’t give you any reason to look down on others or a reason for them to look up to you, but you shouldn’t do it for any of those reasons to begin with. You should do it simply because you’re fortunate enough to have hair, to grow hair and to love hair.

When you look in the mirror, you feel beautiful, don’t you? So what’s stopping you from sharing that with someone who doesn’t get that feeling anymore? Give it to a little girl in a hospital room who simply wants to be like her favorite princess Rapunzel, to the 20-something woman going to interview for her dream job, to the grandmother of three little girls who loved playing with her hair before she lost it all. Give it up because you haven’t been forced to, give it up because you want to. I can almost guarantee that after you do it, you'll experience a new kind of beautiful you've never felt before, and you'll love it just the same. It’s just hair -- it will grow.