I got to participate in a really cool thing yesterday.  New Dos and New Shoes at the Collin County Children’s Advocacy Center.  Under-resourced kids got new shoes and new hairdos for going back to school.  Several hairdressers got together to provide these services.  I don’t cut hair, but I told them I would be ‘sweeper girl’ and just support them.  I ended up helping prepare the kids by wetting their hair and combing it out.  I know now why God gave me boys after helping all the cute little girls.  They have lots of hair with lots of tangles.  I guess I would know that if I ever actually brushed mine.

There’s a lot of good in new shoes and haircuts for kids, but this went one step further.  The 3rd good in this was the 3 radical haircuts, where they went from long to short.  I did Locks of Love 2 years ago so I thought surely we can find some rubberbands in this place.  We did.

Carolina is a teenager that was looking for one of those cute shorter haircuts thats longer in the front and shorter in the back.  I’m not a hair chick, so I have no idea what that style is called.  She was the first donation.

Brianna was next, a preteen, looking for a shorter cut.  Again, we scrounged around for some rubber bands and got a lock to send off for donation.

Alisha, our last donor, was one of the kids mom.  She had really long hair and showed an interest in donating hair, after she saw the other two ponytails on the table.  Her hair was still a pretty decent length after the donation.

Since my best friend is a hair stylist, I know how busy they can get, especially with appointments back to back.  Donating hair is such a great way to bless another person with minimal work involved.  The only things you need to have as a hair dresser to be prepared for that radical moment someone decides to go short is this:

• Plastic baggie
• Padded envelope
• Rubber bands
• Ruler

Why not be prepared?  You have nothing to lose, only goodwill to gain.

Here’s the 3 major hair donation places and addresses:

Locks of Love – 10″ minimum

Locks of Love
234 Southern Blvd.
West Palm Beach, FL 33405-2701

Pantene – 8″ minimum

Pantene Beautiful Lengths
Attn: 192-123
20770 Westwood Dr
Strongsville, OH 44149

Wigs for Kids – 12″ minimum

Wigs for Kids
24231 Center Ridge Road
Westlake, Ohio 44145

I dug out my photos from when I did it.  I like the lower maintenance of shorter hair, but I look like the little dutch boy on the paint can with short hair.  Some people can pull it off, but not me.  I also like being able to do a ponytail at any time.  I’m glad I did it, but I was also happy when my hair started getting longer.  10  inches is a lot!

One more really cool thing was that my church allowed them to take all of our adjustable stools out of guest central to use for the hair cuts.  Setting up a make-shift salon is no easy task.  The stools worked perfectly!  It’s amazing all of the good that can happen when people with really big hearts get together for good.  It’s always great to be a part of working events like this.  A big thanks to everyone that had any part in doing this.  :)