#10 a hair donation

Got to check another off my 101 list!

✔ 10: Donate my hair again.

I had been excitedly waiting to do this.  My hair was LONG!

Never dyed, rarely blow-dried, and super thick!  And HOT on my neck!

I've had to wear it in a bun a lot lately because my ponytail would stick to my neck if it was really humid.  Yuck.

The previous times I've done a donation, I went somewhere that would do it for free.  But the only place I could find around here that did that was Hair Cuttery or Great Clips, which I have "matured" from.  I wanted a good style, so I just went to my regular place.  I'm 26 years old, and I think I'm worth a $30 haircut now.

The stylist sat me in her chair and said, "So what are we doing today?"  

My response: "Chopping it all off and giving it away!"

She asked me if I was nervous, and I wasn't even a tiny bit!  I was so ready for a change!

I immediately felt 3 pounds lighter.  Let's take a look at all that hair:

And how's about my new 'do?

I told the stylist to make me look my age, since I'm tired of being mistaken for a college freshman.

I think she did a good job!

If you look closely at the above picture, you can see my hair in the plastic bag behind the purse strap.  I then took it home and completed my research on who to donate to.  My previous two donations have gone to Locks of Love and the salon sent it off, but I'm not their biggest fan any more after reading this NYT article.   They seem to be more of a PR-factory than anything else AND my perfect hair might have been sold off to pay for overhead (um, if I donate food to the homeless shelter, I'd rather them not sell it off to pay their bills; I'd give them a check if that's how I wanted to help them).   

Wigs for Kids had a million regulations that we didn't follow (and wanted 12 inches, which I'm not quite sure I had; it was probably in the 10-11 range), so I settled on Pantene's Beautiful Lengths program.  They only needed 8 inches, and they didn't seem as strict.  Also, after working (3-month temping) in a corporation's community affairs department, I kinda trust that they'll do it right since it's their PR-ass on the line.  And they have the commercial and monetary backing to do a lot of good.  Look at the numbers in the article: in 10 years, Locks of Love distributed 2,000 wigs (and they charge for them on a sliding scale).  In less than two years since it began, Pantene gave away just as many (for free).  I could be wrong, but I just want my hair to get used and I had a feeling this was the best bet.

I needed a padded envelope, and the post office was closed all weekend, so I got it this morning and sent it off.  I even enclosed a little note with a dumb little picture.  I hope some kid/adult/whomever gets some mileage out of it, because I sure did!