I have long hair. It’s part of who I am. The majority of my adult life I have had waist length hair. I’ve let it grow extra long over the past year in anticipation of cutting it to donate, but barring a year here or there when I was younger I have always had long hair. It’s been shoulder length or longer, usually much longer, for at least twenty years now. My husband, who has long hair himself, used to always joke that he wouldn’t date a girl who had hair that was shorter then his. His reaction when I told him my plans to chop off 25 inches? “Good thing I just got my hair cut.”
My grandmother grew up during the 1930s, she felt strongly that long hair was for little girls. Grown woman should have short hair. She would often nag me to cut my hair. Whenever I stopped over at her house for a visit, I had to be on guard. She would sneak up behind me with scissors and try and give my hair a snip. And when I caught her she would laugh and say, “What? You should cut your hair!”
My grandmother was a breast cancer survivor. She had a mastectomy when she was in her seventies. She used to raise her shirt up at family parties and show off the scar, telling us all to take care. She would tell us that she was an idiot for not having regular breast exams, and if only they had only caught it earlier then she wouldn’t have lost her breast.
So this one’s for you grandma. I am finally cutting my hair. I think it’s time to use all that hair to do some good. I am going to cut one inch off for every $100 raised in donations to the Canadian Cancer Society. I am donating my hair to the Pantene Beautiful Lengths Program. They take the donated hair and pay to turn it into wigs. It costs about $1000 to create a wig from human hair. Pantene takes the wigs and gives them to cancer patients, for free. It’s an amazing program.
I’m asking you guys to please support me in this. If you’ve ever enjoyed reading my blog, if you’ve ever found anything I’ve shared to be helpful or interesting or insightful, if you’ve ever won a cool giveaway, or had a laugh at something I wrote, please support me in this. Support me by donating, by taking part in the silent auctions I will be hosting, or just by helping to spread the word about this event. It would mean the world to me.
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