Hi all,

I hope you’ve had a good week. This week I am going to share my experience of donating my hair to charity.

Why I donated my hair

Donating my hair was something that I’d really wanted to do for a long time but there was always something stopping me. For example, I only wanted the ends trimmed whenever I had it cut. Another reason that stopped me was my hair not being in good enough condition. Since I was young I have had long hair. Even before that, I can remember wanting to have long hair and being jealous of my friends who did. My hair felt like such a big part of my identity. This, on the one hand, initially stopped me from donating my hair, however, thinking of so many children losing all their hair made me realise that their hair is a part of their identity too and this really made me think again and convinced me to donate.

How I donated my hair

The minimum length of hair that can be donated is seven inches. The Little Princess Trust is asking for twelve inches or more in length in an effort to produce more long hair wigs. I managed to donate thirteen inches of my hair. The reason they ask for such long hair is because a lot of the length is taken up by the knotting that needs to be done to secure the hair.

A while before I donated my hair I had the split ends trimmed off then I made a real effort to look after my hair. I used nourishing conditioners and a hair mask once a week. My hair seemed to grow pretty fast during this time. When I felt it was long enough to donate at least twelve inches I made an appointment at the hairdressers. On the day before cutting my hair it had to be washed and completely dried, without the use of any hair product. It was then banded into multiple ponytails. One band at the top and one band at the bottom of the ponytail to make sure that that the hair would be held securely after it was cut. The little princess trust state that plaits are acceptable but ponytails are preferable.

Once the hair was put into ponytails, it was cut just above the bands. The crunching sound when it was being cut was very loud and slightly terrifying. When you have your hair cut normally you don’t hear that sound much because only a small amount is being cut at a time. But because a lot of hair is being cut you hear the crunch. It also felt very strange taking my hair home in bags and even stranger putting it in a posting bag and taking it to the post office.

About the Charity

The Little Princess Trust is a wonderful charity. They provide free real-hair wigs to children who have lost their hair due to cancer treatment and other conditions such as alopecia. Many children who lose their hair struggle with confidence and find losing their hair very upsetting. The wigs really help the children to feel more confident and more like themselves again. The charity has provided over 6000 real-hair wigs, which is amazing! To read more about the Little Princess Trust and see some amazing and inspirational stories click here.

Photos of me Before and After

Here is an image of me before donating my hair

Here is a photo after my hair was donated

Thank you so much for reading, hope you enjoyed. Have you ever donated your hair? Or know someone who has?

Bye, for now, see you next week.