Hair Matters...A Donation of Love

Today I am finally getting around to posting about my daughter's first major hair cut. She is five, and we have trimmed her hair, but never cut off any substantial amount. Well, a couple of weeks ago, we decided it was time. Her hair was just about the full length of her back, which caused struggles both in washing it, and brushing it. Most days she would wake up from nap a tangled mess. We tried braiding it while she slept, but she's a mover in her sleep, and that turned braids into knots.

Here are a couple of before pictures:










The first thing we had to decide was what length we wanted her hair to be. When my older daughter was this age, we did a really special thing together. I took her in to a salon, and we gave her hair (which was equivalent in length to this) to Locks of Love. Locks of Love is a public non-profit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children in the United States and Canada under age 21 suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis.

I discussed this idea first with my husband, and then told LR about the program to let her decide. When she heard that her sister had given her hair to some little girl who needed it, she, of course, wanted to do it too! So we set a date, and off we went.

Once we got to the salon, the hardest part was convincing LR that the sweet stylist was NOT going to spray water in her eyes! Boy was she nervous about leaning her head back into that sink.

When that was over, the woman parted her hair and divided it into two ponytails. Then came the fun part...


SNIP, SNIP! LR was so delighted...she giggled the entire way through. After talking with the stylist about how long she had been at this particular location, we determined that she was the very same woman that cut my oldest's hair three years ago. Imagine that!

She gave LR a cute bob, just long enough to still pull back in a short ponytail. LR kept leaning a bit to the left, so it was difficult to tell if it was even, but I think it's perfect.

When all was said and done LR said "Mommy, can I always give my hair to a little girl that needs it when it gets long?" I was so proud of my little girl. Her sister is currently growing out her hair to give away for the third time. Perhaps we have started a tradition, and next time, the two of them might donate their hair together.