pennyhal2

I remember hearing that there was a group that accepted donations of hair to make real hair wigs for cancer survivors. Is anyone familiar with this group?

cashs_mom

There used to be a group called Locks of Love (I think) that did that.

ptquilts

do your research, there are some that take the hair and then sell the wigs to patients. I never grow enough hair to donate but I have heard different things from other people.

Onebyone

My grandson grew his hair very long to donate for wigs for kids. The pony tail had to be a certain length I think 18 inches. Not sure. The beautician he goes to knew all about it so I would check with salons to find out the info.

KalamaQuilts

past hairdresser here, I voluntereed for 4 years for the American Cancer Society doing wigs for our county, rewarding but hard.

Locks of Love is a whole different ballgame. Real hair wegs are Very expensive to make and require a lot of care/upkeep. As far as I know LofL didn't do freebies unless you were famous.
Having had cancer 3 times this decade, I've been around a lot of cancer patients and about 1/2 (areound here anyway) do even bother with wigs, they go bald proudly, or wear cute caps and hats.
When you are bald any kind of wig is itchy. and hard to keep in place.

Quiltwoman44

OH my son has gorgeous shiny gray hair. growing it out now after many years of wearing is extremely short. I told him to continue to grow it and if he finds he hates it long, donate it when cut!! I wish I had his hair. I have almost white hair now.Boring.

KalamaQuilts

I did some research on Locks of Love again, to be fair. They are a charity with a good rating.
They only donate to people under 21
The parents have to submit a current tax return.
The participant has to have a vacuumn (?) fit silicone scalp prostesis (?) made and sent to LofL, into which the hair is inserted.
can't imagine how sweaty thhis must be. Children's heads grow so for something like alopecia new wigs would need to be done over time and tax returns submitted again.
They have about 7 million in the bank according to the fine print.

https://locksoflove.org/forms/hairpiece-application/

pennyhal2

THanks for the info! Just what I was looking for.

Peckish

I just wanted to add... there's a website called Charity Navigator that helps you decide if the charity you're considering aligns with your values and is worth giving to. They give LofL a 100% rating with 4 stars out of 4. I like to look at how funds are spent - LofL is at 87% of funds going to the program, 2% is spent on fundraising (which is fabulous, it makes me furious when I see charities spend a ton of money on fundraising), and 11% on administrative costs (salaries, supplies, expenses, etc.).
https://www.charitynavigator.org/ein/650755522

KalamaQuilts

I use Charity Navigator often, more so when we were setting up our wills, and again when a niece was cut off.
My problem with LofL is I xcan't see many truly disadvantaged children getting the paperwork right, and for cancer the hair grows back when the chemo stops so it seems a waste of resources.