Hair to Spare - Eldest daughter donates to Little Princess Trust
I’m always staunchly proud of my kids. I probably don’t tell them enough, but I am. My eldest daughter, Charisma, left me speechless with her selflessness, though. So much so that I had to blog about her Hair to Spare donation.
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The first I heard about the charity was in passing from Charisma, who mentioned that she was thinking of chopping off some of her hair and donating it to the Little Princess Trust.
Little Princess Trust’s charity drive.
At 15 years of age, Charisma is the eldest child of my four and has always loved her long locks. She’s been growing her hair for years and it recently got close to waist length.
Any suggestions to trim or cut the hair (normally from her mum - I’m not brave enough to challenge anything relating to style or fashion with the kids) were shot down, aside from an occasional appointment to cut off the split ends.
But Charisma is nothing if not confident in her own decisions. Once she had viewed the video on the site, her mind was made up. She wanted to donate her hair to the Little Princess Trust.
Mel, her mum, messaged me about it, asking if I had any objections, which of course, I didn’t. I knew it wasn’t any kind of kneejerk reaction as it had been mentioned before, so my view was that if she wanted to do it, she was mature enough to make that decision.
I spoke to The Little Princess Trust about their Hair To Spare social media campaign and they sent me the following information:
How much does your hair mean to you? Would you be willing to give it away? Or would you pay to keep hold of it? That’s exactly what the charity wants to find out.
Today, the Little Princess Trust launches its Hair To Spare campaign: a challenge on social media that encourages people to choose between donating a long length of their hair (#HairToSpare team) vs. a small amount of money (#NoHairToSpare team).
The charity will use this hair to make wigs for boys and girls across the UK and Ireland that have sadly lost their own hair through cancer treatment or other illnesses. Plus, the money raised will go towards the buying costs of each new wig (approx. £350).
The campaign – managed by advertising agency The Gate London – will run throughout January. Participants will record their decision on camera – by either having their plaits or ponytails cut off, or by sharing a screenshot of their donation (text WIGS01 to 70070). Then, they simply nominate three friends to see if they have Hair To Spare.
Monica Glass, Charity Manager at the Little Princess Trust says:
“We are all very excited about our first ever social media campaign. If you’ve thought over Christmas that you fancy a new look for the New Year – now’s your chance! I hope it inspires people to cut their hair for a good cause. We accept good condition hair over 7”/17cm, but the longer the better. We are really hoping for hair donations of 12”/30cm or more.”
The campaign is run in partnership with the Toni & Guy Charitable Foundation.
The process of getting the hair seemed fairly simple.
2″ of hair was chopped to get rid of the split ends. The hair was then sectioned into two and made into two plaits which were tightly braided with a band applied at the top and bottom of each Please.
The hair was then cut a little above the first band, after a final confirmation from Charisma and a quick measure to make sure they met the minimum length requirements.
#HairToSpare - Charisma before and after her haircut
As it turned out, the plaits were 10″ long, so more than 3″ over the minimum length. They were then bagged and sent off to the charity by Mel. Charisma still has long(ish) hair, as you can see, but has no hair to spare any more!
On a selfish note, I am hoping that shorter hair may lead to fewer hair pins being left lying around my floors and disappearing up the vacuum cleaner. From a paternal point of view, even now I am still blown away by Charisma’s hair sacrifice, knowing how much she loved her long hair.
For more information on how to take part, visit the Hair To Spare social media pages:
Facebook: Facebook.com/HairToSpareChallenge
Twitter: @HairToSpare
Twitter: @NoHairToSpare
For more information on hair donation, visit the Little Princess Trust website.
I nominate: A Slice Of My Life Wales blog, Belle Du Brighton and my ex-wife (who needs to grow her hair again first!), 30 Something Mel.
Have you ever thought of being part of Team #HairToSpare and donating hair to charity? If not, have you thought of joining me on Team #NoHairToSpare and making a small donation instead?
by DannyUK
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Well done, Charisma, it’s a freat cause, and a very selfless thing to do. My own daughter Tracey did this a little while ago, so I now hard hard it is for a young girl to give up her hair. But even harder for the children who lose their own hair through illness, so Charisma is to be commended for donating. Kudos!
Such a brilliant thing to do, and off her own back too! I’m sure whoever is the recipient of her donates hair will be very happy!
Lauren recently posted…Giveaway: Little Tikes High Back Booster
Twitter: MamaMummyMum
on January 22, 2016 at 5:22 pm
such a great cause, I have to spare but not sure it would be enough to reach the minimum donation. Definitely something I’ll look into.
chantelle hazelden recently posted…Getting Lean In 2016
Twitter: NorthumMam
on January 22, 2016 at 10:46 pm
What a fantastic thing to do! You must be so proud!
This is such a great cause x
Kim Carberry recently posted…Finally back into a routine. #WotW
Twitter: GlorWal64
on January 25, 2016 at 12:12 pm
My own granddaughter donated her hair to a jewish organization for children who lost their due to cancer.
Twitter: mummyandmonkeys
on January 25, 2016 at 10:00 pm
Such a lovely thing to do and at her age it’s really admirable. I would do it but my hair was damaged recently. They would have to shave it off to get any good quality hair. x
Twitter: freddieandi
on January 25, 2016 at 10:04 pm
What an amazing and thoughtful daughter you have, such an amazing charity. She will make someone very happy with that hair x
I envy everyone who has hair that grows long enough to chop some off for donations. I can’t for the life of me get my hair to grow past the top of my shoulder blades! I would totally donate if I could. How cool that she did it!
Twitter: ericahughes
on January 26, 2016 at 6:53 am
What a lovely thing to do! It’s something I could have done in the past if I’d known about it. Now though my hair barely seems to grow anymore, although it’s past shoulder length.
Erica Price recently posted…Wrapping Up With Joules
This is such a lovely thing to do. Well done to your daughter for giving her hair to such a worthy cause, she’s so pretty too – with long or short hair 🙂
I think this is just fabulous and such a lovely thing to you, you should be so proud of her and her hair 😉
Twitter: emmaand3
on January 26, 2016 at 12:32 pm
wow what a wonderful thing to do, you should be so so proud of how you have raised such a caring daughter.
Twitter: lifeasmumblog
on January 26, 2016 at 2:00 pm
Oh wow. What a fantastic thing she has done for a great cause! You must be so proud of her.
Twitter: bloggingmummy87
on January 26, 2016 at 9:02 pm
This is AMAZING and if I had long enough hair i would 100% be doing this. My hair is no where near long enough and takes ages to grow 🙁 boo!! What an amazing thing to say she has done though.
I would love to do this but my hair is in such bad condition, and, having just measured it, 1 inch too short!!
Well done to Charisma, such a fab thing to do for charity & she looks great with shorter hair too 🙂 xx
Twitter: wendy malone
on February 6, 2016 at 11:14 am
what a lovely girl, you must be so proud of her. A very worthy cause.