It’s That Time Again!
Time to make Single Ma’s eyes bug out!
My hair is getting really long again. When we last visited our heroine getting a salon cut, it was September and she’d been to THREE weddings with uneven hair. However, even as the maid of honor on a beautiful beach in Puerto Rico, no one gave a damn that the ends were tatty. BIG SURPRISE. Everyone was looking at the bride and groom and didn’t care at all about the other people standing near them.
So, my hair is grazing the top of my waistband. It’s got another 6 months to go before I could sit on it. It feels dry and yucky. The combination of Pantene shampoo and Tresemme conditioner has not held up well on the hair. My mom asked me if I bleached it. GRRR. I told her it was my hair product drying it out and slowly bleaching to a brown instead of a nice sleek black.
(Yes boys, this is why it matters what a girl uses on her hair. It will make it change color when she does not want to change it. GRRR again.)
Since I am feeling charitable, I’m going to do Locks of Love again. I would however like to receive acknowledgment of my gift of hair, which I didn’t get the last time, but that’s ok. I’m not sure it is considered a gift-in-kind that I can write off on my taxes.
The only question is how much to cut off and when to do it. I have been contemplating going with a really short bob. I haven’t had one in years. I think of all the shampoo I could save, but then I think that I look better with longer hair.
Since it takes 6-8 ponytails to make a hairpiece for a child, are there 5-7 other people who are willing to pledge either a donation of hair or a charitable contribution? It actually takes $1000 to sponsor a single child for their cranial prosthesis. The retail value of the hairpiece they receive is $3500-$6000. Each child will receive up to 6 of them before they turn 18.
If I can convince one or two other people to try growing their hair and making a donation, I would be very happy. Come on! The dog days of summer are here! What better time to chop it all off than in the swampy humidity of summer?
Adrienne wrote:
Glad to see that others donate hair to this cause. I get my hair cut once a year and make sure the salon donates the hair. Normally I have between 12-14 inches of untreated brown hair to donate. I have done my part for the last 10+ years and I regularly encourage others to as well.
Posted on 28-Aug-07 at 3:35 pm | Permalink
Single Ma wrote:
I’m amazed at how long your hair is and how fast it grows. Are you really going to chop it off yourself (again)? I demand a picture this time! LOL
I wish I could participate, but I love my hair. It’s only shoulder length, nowhere near as long as yours, but I’d look like a kid if I cut it too short. My BabyGirl, on the other hand, prefers short spiked tresses. I blame the teenage-life crisis. LOL
Posted on 28-Aug-07 at 5:42 pm | Permalink
Jennifer wrote:
You may want to consider a similar program, Pantene’s Beautiful Lengths. It is endorsed by the American Cancer Society who distributes the wigs, they guaruntee the wig will go to a cancer patient, and they do not charge the patient. I just donated 8 inches (their minimum requirement) last month.
http://www.pantene.com/en_US/beautifullengths/
After doing some research on the criticism of Locks of Love, this is what I chose.
Good for you for donating it, wherever you go with - I was really happy when I made my donation.
Posted on 28-Aug-07 at 11:57 pm | Permalink
mapgirl wrote:
Thanks Jennifer for the comment. Pantene’s program would be highly ironic, since I believe that their Smooth and Sleek product dried out my hair’s texture.
It’s very good that you researched the criticism of the charity and I’m glad you pointed it out to me. After doing a little more research of my own on Pantene, LOL and Wigs for Kids, I think I’m still going to do Locks of Love. They have some of the least stringent standards on donations. Despite the fact they don’t really give their wigs out to kids with cancer, I think alopecia and scalp burns are still pretty awful for a child’s self esteem.
As far as the sliding scale goes, I’ll say this. Often times when people pay for things, they value them more. Think condom sales in Africa by non-profit organizations. Strangely if you give things away for free, they aren’t valued. But if you nominally charge for them, they are.
I’m not sure that the imprimatur of the American Cancer Society means much. I mean, what are they going to do, tell Pantene and it’s corporate parent to go fly a kite?
Either way, thank you for the valuable comment. To live more deliberately is a goal of mine and deciding carefully which charity to chose is probably something I should do in pursuit of that goal.
Posted on 29-Aug-07 at 7:21 am | Permalink
Bri wrote:
I just donated 14 inches to Locks of Love in May. I naively expected I’d get an acknowledgment since I had to fill out a bunch of paperwork with the donation. Please post again if you find out anything about the tax deduction issues. I’m always hunting for more deductions.
Posted on 29-Aug-07 at 12:52 pm | Permalink
HC wrote:
While on the long side, my hair isn’t going to be long enough to chop off any time in the forseeable future (unless I wanted to go SUPER-short, which would, erm, not be flattering).
But I’m happy to chip a bit of cash if you get a team of donors together.
Posted on 29-Aug-07 at 1:06 pm | Permalink
Amanda wrote:
I’ve done locks of love twice in my life, and I think it’s a really great charity!
Posted on 29-Aug-07 at 3:28 pm | Permalink
savvy wrote:
Somewhat off topic, but not really…. I use shampoo and conditioner by EO (http://www.eoproducts.com/). It doesn’t strip natural oils and it leaves my hair’s texture really nice and clean. I only wash twice a week now, since EO shampoo and conditioner don’t leave any residue that makes my hair look greasy or feel dirty.
You can see a list of their ingredients and non-ingredients here…
http://www.eoproducts.com/home?rs=loveLifeLiveClean
If you buy the big bottles (16 ounces or larger), and switch to twice a week washing, you will probably find that your shampoo/conditioner costs are lower than they were with store brands.
Posted on 30-Aug-07 at 9:19 am | Permalink
Chief Family Officer wrote:
If you recall, you inspired me to keep growing my hair out so I could donate to LOL but it’s still not long enough to cut! I’ll be cheering you on, though (are you seriously going to cut it yourself, though? that’s too insane for me!).
And now I might take a look at the Pantene program - I like that the minimum length is 8 inches, not 10. I *might* be able to do that now!
Posted on 30-Aug-07 at 10:36 pm | Permalink