I most likely realized this quite a bit earlier in life, because I hacked off a good 8 inches of my sister's long, blond Barbie-like locks when I was 4 and she was 3, one day before my mom was to take her to have professional photos taken.
I have my mother's pin-straight, super-fine hair. It resembles baby hair, really. Which was adorable and precious when I was 1 and not so adorable and precious at 31. I've kept it pretty short since college, since it at least has the appearance of thickness when it's not cascading down my back in thin, broken strands.
Trust me when I tell you I have a long, long history of very bad hairstyles and perms and run-ins with the Crimper that I thought made my horrible hair look better.
They didn't.
What I failed to realize as a child growing up with hair I hated was that I was lucky to have hair at all.
Melissa over at Woolgatherings is organizing Bloggers for Locks of Love.
Locks of Love is a non-profit organization that provides hair pieces for needy children who have lost their hair due to a medical condition. The hair pieces are either donated to the kids or provided to them at an inexpensive price. While I grew up hating my hair and feeling self-conscious about how straggly it was, my experiences pale in comparision to what the children suffering from alopecia areata (where hair follicles simply stop growing) or the effects of chemotherapy must endure.
To participate, head over to Melissa's to sign up. All you have to do is grow your hair, and then donate it. I'm not participating myself, as my hair isn't suitable for donation, but yours might be. Look! All the cool kids are doing it, and one of them has already done it!
If you can't or decide not to donate, you can still help out by writing a post about Bloggers for Locks of Love.
Spread the word.
Thanks Kristi!! I'm hoping that by the end of summer, my hair will be long enough to donate.
Cool post, hon!
Very cool! I have actually donated to them twice, but now I dye my hair... so it will not work. But I hope you get a lot of supporters! It is the coolest organization.
I have enough to donate right now but I was bummed to find out that getting highlights last summer makes mine unuseable. That seems odd to me, maybe I should double check that info . . .
It is a great cause!
I love this idea! Too bad I've got hair like yours (looks like my kid got my genes too ...). My sister in law though ... has that thick long hair that she can grow to her feet if she wants ... she's done LoL a couple times now.
"Hair that is colored or permed is acceptable."
Dyed hair is okay. Bleached or highlighted hair is not.
This is a really cool idea! I'm donating mine around May, but to the Pantene program. For those of you with bleaching or highlighting, you could still donate to something like Matter of Trust, which makes mats out of human hair to clean up oil spills.
mine falls into the "bleached or highlighted" category.