I’ve often heard of people with long hair getting it cut off and donating it for wigmaking (for cancer patients, I think). How does one do this, what are the groups that do it, what are the requirements (hair length, condition, etc.)?
Google is your friend. Put in “donate hair” and see all the sites that pop up.
I donated my hair this summer, so I can tell you a little about the process. As far as I know there are two major groups that take hair to make wigs for children who have lost their hair for medical reasons. There’s Locks of Love, and Wigs for Kids. I donated my hair to Wigs for Kids.
Most salons are familiar with these organizations. You just have to mention it when you go in to have your hair cut and they will take care of everything for you. I know that Wigs for Kids is affiliated with Cost Cutters, and in many areas Cost Cutters will sponsor a “hair drive”.
If you wish to donate your hair it must be in good condition, but it is okay if it is permed, straightened, or dyed. If you want your hair to actually go into a child’s wig you must usually donate between 10 and 12 inches, but you can donate anything longer than 5 or 6 inches. The shorter hair is sold by the charity to offset their costs – I presume they sell it to manufacturers of men’s hairpieces.
I’d just like to chime in that I donated all 30 inches of my hair to Wigs for Kids about a year and a half ago.
Another good thing that came out of my headbanging days: I donated about three feet of hair to the Continental (hairdressing chain)franchise in a Toronto hospital. They were referred to me by the Quebec Cancer Society as the only Canadian organization that did this kind of thing. They supposedly heavily subsidize the cost of wigs for chemotherapy patients when the hair is donated. Hair should be clean, tied at one end with an elastic band and placed in a plastic bag. They didn’t acknowledge receipt of my hair though so maybe it’s a big scam. I’ve heard of Locks for Love in Florida as well.
I donated about 13" of hair to Locks of Love a few weeks ago. I went to a Supercuts and explained the requirements to the person who cut my hair (the cut-off hair has to be banded together into a ponytail, and they don’t want it to have been on the floor). After consulting a colleague who’d done it before, she fastened my hair into a low ponytail and then cut off my hair about an inch above the elastic. Then she gave me a normal haircut to even up the bottom.
As Lamia mentioned, they need at least 10" to use for a child’s wig. I had about 23" of hair to start with, so it worked in my case to just make a ponytail and cut it off. I’m not sure what the procedure would be for shorter hair.
When I went to Supercuts, I brought an elastic hair fastener, a tape measure (to make sure they’d cut off at least 10"), and a Ziploc bag to carry the hair home in. Locks of Love asks you to put the banded ponytail into a resealable plastic bag anyway before mailing it to them at the address on their web site.
My hair grows pretty fast, so I’ll probably be doing this again. I like the idea, and I’m sure that a wig made of real hair looks much nicer than a synthetic one.
I also donated 13", but had considerably shorter hair to begin with. The hairdresser cut it off in layers – took longer than a ponytail-chop, but it worked.
Some hair salons have connections with the various hair charities and will handle the packaging and mailing of hair for you, otherwise you need to put it in a bag and mail it in as Miss Bianca described.
i agree w/ lamia go with one of those two links