Locks of Love

My sister was on the tennis team at Pioneer High School.  She was a great player.  She trained at Boulatarie when we lived in Florida, and even met Pete Sampras.  Needless to say she was on Varsity.  Sometimes Varsity scrimmaged with the JV players, so the two teams knew each other fairly well.

There was a boy, Robert, in my elementary school class (we were 7) whose sister played on the JV team.  He was telling me how she had cut all her hair off because her best friend had cancer and was going to lose her hair.  Robert’s sister did it to show her friend that losing hair wouldn’t be the end of her high school career – and in reality it really wouldn’t change anything about her, other than her being bald, of course.

I remember sharing this information with my parents, sister and the Varsity tennis coach.  I also remember him saying how weird Robert’s sister was.  Now, this may be true – his sister being weird I mean.  She was related to Robert, and Robert did try to smear dog poop on my face at recess.  My dad had to call his dad… it was a huge debacle.

Regardless of what his sister was, to me, she was extraordinary.  I can’t even imagine what it would be like without hair.  I dyed my hair dark brown to look more like Megan Fox my senior year of college and nearly had a melt down when people couldn’t recognize me.  And at age 5, I am sure I didn’t understand why I felt so strongly about this junior varsity tennis player whom I never met.  But I remember high school and I know it wasn’t easy.  So add losing your hair because of some unfortunate sickness to high school and all of its wicked glory – all of its peer pressure, insecurity, and fitting in.

I guess that’s why Locks of Love is so important.  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.  Basically, all you would need to do is get grow your hair to about 10 inches (the minimum about of hair needed to process it into hair pieces) and have your stylist cut the hair off in a braid or pony tail form.  By donating your grown out hair, you are allowing for a child to feel more like the other children, even though they may be going through something very different.  Just remember how hard growing up could be, and think of how easy this simple donation is, and truly how much it can help children obtain a piece of the normality they lost upon getting sick.

To learn more about the requirements of donation and about Locks of Love visit their website at www.locksoflove.org