A new do

Back in June 2010 I cut my hair and donated 14 inches to Pantene Beautiful Lengths (8 inches is the minimum required for donation). I appreciate the business model of Pantene Beautiful Lengths more than any other hair donation company, particularly because they are partnered with the American Cancer Society and donate all wigs at no cost to women fighting cancer rather than sell them at a reduced cost the way others do.

I think I’ve had one trim between then and now. A lot of people say that regular trims are important to growing your hair long, but that doesn’t make any sense. You actually only need a trim when the ends get bad. As long as the ends are healthy, it doesn’t need a trim (growing out layers would be the exception). My hair had grown till it was definitely past waist. And I was having a lot of fun braiding it into different types of buns. But I was also ready for a change.

I’ve been cutting Brett’s hair each month since August. It’s needing fewer touch-ups after I’m done now. It was time for him to return to the favor, kind of.

The Saturday before Christmas we pulled my hair back into a ponytail and measured up from the bottom. I gave Brett the scissors and we took a fun picture. Then he hacked (appropriate word) off another 14 inch ponytail. And then I went to the salon to have them straighten out the ends.

Here’s some before and after shots (taken a few weeks before we cut it off and a few weeks after). To give you an idea, each of the squares on that wall are 12 inches square.

My hair is longer post-cut than it was in 2010. Looks like it takes a little over two years for me to get a real good donation going, even less time if I went with just the minimum donation (closer to a year probably). I plan to keep donating as long as my hair is healthy and doesn’t have too much gray (or sparklies, as I’m calling them). Cancer sucks. Anything I can do to help, even if it’s just helping a woman feel better about herself (and attitude actually means a lot to your health), I’m going to do it.