Donating Hair

**rkcr** · Joined: 05 Feb 2007 Posts: 2518 Location: Minneapolis

Through much of my life I've wondered what it'd be like to have long hair, so after I graduated from college in June '07 I stopped getting haircuts. I went through the unkempt phase to the mullet phase; from the mullet phase to the "long enough to be annoying but too short to tie back" phase; onwards to the "I refuse to put my hair in a ponytail, that's what all computer geeks do" phase; and finally landing on the "shit I'm a stereotypical programmer" phase I'm in right now. I have gotten much advice from (mostly) female friends on hair care and maintenance which is entirely unnecessary when your hair is short.

What I've discovered is that long hair is a gigantic pain in the ass. It takes longer to wash and longer to dry. It gets everywhere, especially when you're looking down into your food. It freezes in the cold Minnesota winters. It makes swimming a pain. The only advantage of long hair I've seen so far is people comparing me to Herman Li. In other words, I want it gone.

The second goal that I set for myself when this hair quest began was to eventually donate my hair to charity. I hardly want all my hard work growing hair to go to waste. I haven't yet decided on which charity deserves my hair - it's difficult because there are so many:

Cuts for Cancer
Beautiful Lengths
Locks of Love
Wigs for Kids
Children With Hair Loss
Childhood Leukemia Foundation

Despite hating long hair, it's difficult to part with it. I've been working on this hair for almost two years! However, I think I've finally worked up the nerve to cut it all off tonight. Barring natural disaster or weak nerves, I'll put up before and after pictures later. (The only good picture I can find of myself with long-ish hair is from last summer, so it hardly looks the same now.) Wish me luck!

Who else here has donated hair? Do you have any tips? Anyone have any particular reason for one charity over another?

Edit: Pictures can be found here.

**Rawrspoon** · Joined: 04 Sep 2008 Posts: 1597

My sister donated hair to Locks of Love, she was so proud of it.

I think it's a great thing to donate hair, unfortunately my school has an extremely strict hair length policy that can result in suspension

**PieGuy** · Joined: 01 Mar 2007 Posts: 2836 Location: Long Island, NY

Out of those you listed, the only one I've really heard of is Locks of Love and I've heard good things about it. A friend of mine cut her hair short and was going to donate to LoL (lol), but they didn't accept her hair for some reason - make sure you look into that too, there's some requirements for the hair that have to be met in order to donate it (but I'm sure you already know that).

Edit: ...and if I'd actually clicked the links before posting, I'd have seen such requirements listed. Go me.

**Eastwinn** · Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2009 9:54 pm Post subject: Re: Donating Hair

**rkcr** · Joined: 05 Feb 2007 Posts: 2518 Location: Minneapolis

**suspectfenster** · Joined: 20 Oct 2006 Posts: 1771 Location: Portland, OR

My girlfriend continually goes through the two year process of growing out her hair, cutting it, donating it, and then doing something different with her hair when it's short[er]. She uses Locks for Love as well...the only restrictions I believe are that your hair can't be treated, and has to be 10 inches in length from the start of the pony tail. Judging by your hair length though...I'm not sure it'd be long enough? I could be wrong...it's hard to tell with a guy since having half-inch long hair is perfectly normal. Anyhow, she seems to like that charity perfectly fine, but I'm sure any of the charities you listed would be great choices too.

It's a very cool thing to do, and I'm sure you'll make somebody very happy!

EDIT: Nevermind on my LoL rant. >_>
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**SeaMoney** · Joined: 24 Jun 2008 Posts: 750 Location: East Lansing, MI

I've donated my hair to Locks of Love before (back when I was like, 11 or 12), and I was supposed to donate again after I took my dread locks out, but I decided to keep it. I might donate again in the future, as my hair is almost to my stomach and my mom wants to me to have shorter hair for senior photos (which I take in September).
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**rkcr** · Joined: 05 Feb 2007 Posts: 2518 Location: Minneapolis

**suspectfenster** · Joined: 20 Oct 2006 Posts: 1771 Location: Portland, OR

**Auriscope** · Joined: 29 Nov 2007 Posts: 1402

Hmm... This has made me think about how long my hair is...>__>
It's almost to my stomach and it's been bugging me lately, I just don't think I have it in me to cut it.

Rkcr, if you do it, I'll seriously consider it. :D
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**Kingofterrors** · Joined: 24 Oct 2006 Posts: 1993 Location: Odenton, MD

When i grew my hair out i donated it to locks of love. However i didn't do any research... that's just what some other people i knew had done.

I can't imagine you with short hair again lol. This is gonna be awesome.
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**Oyoefpoefpoef** · Joined: 15 Aug 2008 Posts: 174

I donated my hair just before christmas. Actually, it served two other purposes at the same time. It was my summative for my civics class, which was to do something active in the community. I also collected donations that I gave to charity. After you cut it, you're going to realize how good of an idea it was. Everything just becomes so much more convenient.

Also, I cut ALL mine off. You don't have balls if you don't get it ALL off.
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**basst777** · Joined: 07 Feb 2007 Posts: 827

**xmaartist** · Posted: Tue Mar 17, 2009 12:47 am Post subject:

Hmm do they accept by length or mass? Because I had hella long hair but it was like a fro but then it got weighed down and became dreads, which are much shorter than individual strands of hair. I probably would have hair down to my shoulder but it's now just to the bottom of my chin.
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**Rawrspoon** · Joined: 04 Sep 2008 Posts: 1597