Locks of Love: “Sacrificing” a Prized Possession for the Cause

20 years ago I started growing my hair out from the short-ish cut I’d always had.

15 years ago was the last time I ever sat in a hair stylists’ chair.

Through that time I could never imagine getting rid of my hair.  Even when it wasn’t the greatest, it was one of the things I liked about myself and didn’t want to lose that.  I even hated the trims twice a year I got from Mum because the hair got scraggly on the ends.  If someone had asked me if I’d ever cut it, I would have told them they were crazy!

About three years ago, I think, a good friend of mine arranged a “Head for the Cure” event and people cut and/or shaved their head for pledges and donated hair and money to the cause.  I actually thought about doing it for a moment at the last minute – not for pledges, because it was too late, but just to donate the hair.  I got up there and… couldn’t do it.  *insert chicken noises here :) *

A year later, I again had the thought of donating my hair.  I thought it would be nice to raise a bit of money for the cause at the same time as well.  I waited around for a similar event… but none (that I knew of) came.  But it was never really a serious thought.  It was always “IF there is ever an event, I’ll think about it”.

But this weekend, I don’t know what happened, but something changed.  As some of you know, I’m going away next week.  I was going to have my mum trim my hair again as I usually did before I go away but I thought… why don’t I do it?  Go cut my hair?  and when Monday morning rolled around and the idea hadn’t left I went ahead and made the appointment to CUT my hair!  But there was no way I would let it go to waste, so it would be donated.  The minimum donation length is 10″ for locks of love and they seem to accept almost any kind of hair.

I’ve had a few moments of freaking out, but I went through with it!  The cut itself went smoothly and quickly.  I didn’t freak out!! Although I was nervous. :)  In the end, the braid was 15″.  It’s much shorter than I planned, but I like it. :)  I got an ‘inverted bob’ (so Amanda told me) and a bit of a feathered fringe.  I’ll be sending it off later in the week. :)

Below are some pictures of the “event”.

Before

Before - Look how long it is!!

The front view

After

The back... gah!! it's so short!!!

After - the front... Hmm, mabye I should have had a fringe?

The Braid

The Braid

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Listening to: Unplugged – Spirit of the West
via FoxyTunes