"How to brush your teeth": Women on how they donated their hair to charity
Associated with charity most often cash contributions or donation of blood and organs. There are other donation options - for example, hair that is collected on wigs for the needy. A large number of myths and stereotypes are still associated with women's hair in society: many people believe in “special energy of hair”, and their length is often perceived as one of the main signs of conventional beauty.
For those who want to donate hair for charity, there are a few rules: most of the funds do not take dyed hair into work, and also less than thirty centimeters in length. Natural hair wigs are most often machine-made, and this process takes about a month. Manual products are created three times longer. For one wig, hair of five to ten people is necessary. First, they are combed to get rid of short hairs that differ in length. Then the hair is disinfected, sorted by length and type, smoothed and sometimes dyed. Funds that take hair, there are various charities and some brands. In most of them you can get a haircut on the spot or send your hair by mail.
We talked to girls who donated their hair to charity, about fears, the reaction of others and their attitude to their appearance.
Interview: Natalia Rudakovskaya
Tanya
donated hair at a salon in Israel
In the summer of 2017 my grandfather died, and his daughter (my aunt) came from Israel to Belarus. One day we went to nature; my hair began to interfere with me, and I said that I would cut it off. Relatives asked what I would do with them, I replied that I would sell "like all normal people." And I received the answer: "Why sell, give to charity." Since then the thought has lodged in my head.
For a long time I was looking for an opportunity to donate hair to charity in Belarus. I thought all the time that they could not go where I wanted, that they could be sold. And almost everywhere they demanded to pay for a haircut - and this also increased suspicions. A year later, I went to visit my aunt, and then the issue was resolved quickly: in Israel, almost every hairdresser cooperates with various foundations - both with the Red Cross and with organizations for the fight against cancer. There are even special boxes and tickers. You come, they measure the length, cut off the hair and in this box are sent to the fund, and they give you a certificate. It's free.
To be honest, I don’t know what kind of foundation my hair went to, but I saw girls who were given them. I had a lot of hair, they had enough for two. I managed to talk with one of them on the phone, she cried a lot and thanked me - she was sixteen. She has leukemia, and she said that even before such beautiful hair she had never had.
After I had my hair cut, everyone started asking me what I did with my hair: left it or sold it. I once told a friend that I gave them to charity, but she did not believe it - she began to say that I was lying and in fact sold my hair. After that, I got sick of sharing this story with someone.
Mayan
donated hair in the Kremlin Fashion salon
I cut my hair for charity in December 2018. Before that, she went all her life with long ones - there was not a single moment when they were shorter than the middle of the chest. I have always been in the form of a "princess", I have grown together with him, but in the last six months my life and inner world have changed a lot - I felt cramped and uncomfortable in it. I physically needed a change.
With my friend barber, we jokingly discussed that I would come to him for a short haircut on New Year's Eve. But at some point I realized that this was no longer a joke. At first I wanted to experiment - I thought about painting myself in all sorts of colors from pink to green - but I quickly realized that in a week or two I would get tired of it. In addition, it is a rather selfish attitude to the hair, which can serve someone else. So I decided to donate my hair for charity and found Kremlin Fashion, where they make wigs for people with cancer - it turned out that almost no one in Moscow does it.
I went there, completely unaware of what to expect. In the salon I was met by a woman who herself makes wigs and receives visitors. We got to talking, she showed me how the process was going on - she was just finishing a wig for one girl. After that, I had no idea that my hair could go somewhere wrong. Then the employee put me in front of the mirror, braided my hair in a braid and began to cut them off. It was a long time — probably a minute — because my hair is very thick. I sat with bated breath; getting a haircut for the first time in my life was very strange.
I did not regret for a second about what was done, because all my life I have deprived myself of the opportunity to be different. I realized how stupid it was to frame myself that beauty does not depend on hair. Some of the older friends of parents, especially women with traditional ideas about appearance, feel sorry for my hair, which I do not understand. And everyone else is delighted. Strangers on the street call me "young man" periodically. I recently played a DJ set and was in the usual "girl" image, and some person told my friend: "Damn, what a nice guy plays." But it only makes me laugh.
Mila
donated hair to the Pantene foundation
I was inspired by a friend to give her hair, I saw her post on Facebook after another haircut for charitable purposes and thought it was an easy way to help someone. Actually, it was difficult to decide: I never did anything radical with my long hair and I received the most compliments thanks to them. They have always been and remain a big part of my identity.
After graduating from the magistracy, I did not immediately find a job. I decided that if I found it before I ran out of money, I would give my hair to charity. And so it happened: I received an offer, and two months later I cut off my hair, put it in an envelope and sent it to the fund. It was in 2016, I cut twenty-five centimeters. I sent my hair to the Pantene Beautiful Lengths program, they make wigs for adult women with oncological diagnoses. I was looking for a program just for adults - for some reason it seems to me that appearance is more important for them and hair loss is much more traumatic than for children. Of course, my opinion may be unfounded, I myself have never lost my hair.
My partner's hobby is to cut and do styling, and we cut the hair together, I have one tail, and he has another. We just started dating then, and at that time he was very supportive of me. I did not discuss this decision with anyone except him - I knew that my mother, for example, would react negatively to this idea. There is one very important point: when you donate hair, they should be unpainted, and I understood that now there are quite a few people with rather long and unpainted hair. That is, the group of "donors" of hair is not so big. Someone would like to donate their hair, but cannot do it. I'm thinking of cutting my hair again. Now in my career there is a moment of stagnation, but if positive changes occur in the near future, I will again give my hair to charity.
Liza
donated hair to the Little Princess foundation
It all started with the fact that I had a rather rare problem: my hair grew very quickly, and with too long I was uncomfortable. Every few months I had to cut ten to fifteen centimeters. I have been doing charity work for a long time and at some point I wondered if I could donate my hair. It turned out that in America and Great Britain this is a common practice - almost every third person does this. I preferred the Little Princess Foundation from the UK. Then I was just going to study in Scotland and decided that after my arrival I would cut off my hair and send it to the foundation by mail. The first time I cut off thirty two centimeters of hair, it was in 2014. The second time is eighteen centimeters in May 2016. The third time I cut twenty-four centimeters on the eve of the new, 2017.
So far, no other organization has given me such confidence as the Little Princess. They take hair on a charitable basis, raise money for fund-raising and make wigs for little girls with cancer. In 2014, I wrote off with organizations in America and they said that there were no problems with donations, hair is always in abundance. I was looking for funds in other countries, but my emails were answered in broken English or were not answered at all. I did not dare to send there - I was afraid that the hair would go wrong. Some more funds sell wigs - I didn't want that either.
The first time it was incredibly difficult to decide. A huge amount of time, effort and money was invested in caring for your hair, and when you raised them long, beautiful and healthy, cutting off thirty centimeters seems like an impossible sacrifice. Two people fought in me: a girl who is afraid to cut off her hair, and a conscious woman who understands the importance of this business. At that time I had been working in Belarus for three years with children with disabilities. The organization was called "Children of Chernobyl", we traveled to oncological and rehabilitation centers. After what I saw, I could not retreat. The second and third times cutting the hair was like brushing your teeth. I am convinced that all the fears in my head - when you approach a good business with a soul, everything turns out.