Gallimaufry Grove: I Gave My Hair Away!!

That's right. It's been 15 years since I had a new do. It was high time we did something about that little fact. To protect the innocent, I won't mention my hair stylist's name here on the world wide web, but her name starts with Brittany and she and her husband are the children's ministers at our church. And she is amazing. And I love her. But don't worry, I won't tell you who she is, since she is remaining perfectly anonymous. Ahem.

Since my hair is was long, and healthy, I wanted to donate it to make things just a teensy bit easier for someone who is going through a rough time. There are charitable organizations that specialize in turning human hair into wigs for people who lose their hair to cancer, alopecia or other diseases. I did a bit of research about both the requirements for donating my hair to charity and how those charities were actually doing as far as, well, charity. Some places were better than others. In fact, one of the charities everyone talks about doesn't actually even give the wigs to children. The families have to pay for the wigs on a sliding scale according to their income. This particular charity also gets so many donations that apparently they don't use them all for wigs. Many donations just get tossed or sold. I didn't want that.

I decided to give my hair to Children With Hair Loss. They are actively seeking hair donations and they have never sold a wig to a child - ever. In fact, they keep their clients in wigs and wig care products until they are 21 years old. That means that a girl with alopecia (whose hair falls out and does not grow back) can have a quality wig (and the self-confidence it brings) all the way through those rocky teenage years. Children With Hair Loss has requirements that are less stringent than many of the other places, too. My hair had plenty of length for all the charities I researched, but I use henna to color my gray. Many charities don't allow color-treated or chemically processed hair. I wasn't sure if pure leaf henna qualified as "color-treated" since there are no chemicals involved, but many charities don't allow hair that has begun to go gray. Wuh-oh. No problem, though. CWHL allows gray hair and colored hair. Obviously, they want healthy hair, but they are more lenient about what has been done to that hair.

CWHL requires that the donated hair be in a ponytail or braid and be at least 8" long...

Mine ended up being over 12 inches long at it's longest point. I was a little worried about the long layering in my hair, but even my layers were 9 inches. Perfect!

And here's the after:

This picture was taken after I had wrangled four kids through a few hours of errands, dashed home, made dinner, scooted the kids to their activities and finally slowed down enough to look more closely in the mirror. Brittany had put some curls in it, which are miraculously not completely gone yet. Oh, honey, this hairstyle has options. I can wear it straight. I can wear it curly. I can wear it with beachy waves... Oh the possibilities...