The Hair Donation/Locks of Love Debate

[PseudoScot]

Hi all - someone I know wants to cut off her hair and donate but wants to chat to me beforehand because she's heard [through another friend] that Locks of Love is probably not the ideal choice.

Does anyone have any of the factual articles pertaining to this organization/practice ready to hand that I could refer her to? I'm not trying to lambast this organization, simply explore some of the alternatives this lady could explore.

Thank you for your advice/references/viewpoints etc.

[Neorah]

Here is a New York Times article about LoL.

I know that a lot of other members have a lot more to say about the topic than I do, though-- I got all of my info from them.

[Ursula]

The basic problem is that the number of donations they say they get, the number of donations they say they need to make a wig and the number of wigs they say they have made just doesn't match up.

Lots of donations, enough to have made about ten times as many wigs as they say they have made. So there is only a 1 in 10 chance that your friends hair might actually wind up in a wig - perhaps less.

She can find the numbers on their own website (or could have, a couple of months ago when I last looked) and do the math herself, if she is skeptical. The numbers are spread out on different pages, making it tricky to get the necessary data to judge their work - but it is there, and it is pretty dismal.

No one would donate food to a food bank that threw out 9 out of 10 cans, or money to a charity where only $10 of your $100 donation would be used for the cause. Same problem here, only with hair.

[Lixie]

If she's looking for an alternative place to donate she could try http://www.matteroftrust.org/programs/hairmatsinfo.html. These people use hair to create mats to clean up oil spills. The best part is that they'll take hair in any condition.

[Nightshade]

If she's looking for an alternative place to donate she could try http://www.matteroftrust.org/programs/hairmatsinfo.html. These people use hair to create mats to clean up oil spills. The best part is that they'll take hair in any condition.

Now that's just damn cool. I love that they take pet fur as well.

[Isilya]

I saved a reply someone (it could have been Ursula, but I'm not sure, sorry) made in one of LOL-threads that I found very helpful to convince my sister that Locks of Love is not what they appear to be. Numbers always impress people .


"They seem to have edited their website, so that they removed a lot of the numbers that we put together to figure out what is going on.

From this page http://www.locksoflove.org/press.html They say that they were founded in 1989, and that they have served "over 2000" children. For the math, I'll say 2500, since that's the next number they're likely to round off to. The total is probably under 3000, or else they've said "over 3000." Since they were founded in 1989, they've been in existance for 17 years, in which to do this work. Some of the children probably have gotten more than one wig, so lets say, 3000 wigs.

In a previous version of their website, they said they recieved 2000 hair donations a week. However, they probably didn't get so many over their whole existance (starting from zero), so I'll say an average of 1000 per week, over their existance.

At some point they posted that they needed 6-10 donations per wig. I'll go with 10.

So these are the numbers I'll use to figure out how much hair goes into the wigs:

1000 donations a week
10 donations per wig
15 years
3000 wigs


1000 donations a week x 52 weeks in a year x 15 years is 780,000 donations.

780,000 donations, with 10 donations per wig, would be hair for 78,000 wigs.

They've probably made about 3000 wigs, from donations sufficent to make 78,000. That is about 3.8% of the hair recieved going to wigs.

That's a scam, at least from the hair donors point of view.

People are donating their hair to go into wigs, not to be sold, thrown out, or left sitting in a warehouse. People are being pressured to cut their hair for donation, by people who think the hair will go into wigs for sick kids.

Locks of Love is saying "give us your hair, we'll make it into a wig for a sick kid." And overall, that's a lie.

And it is a lie that leads to many of us being pressured to cut our hair when we don't want to.

And that's why many people here don't like Locks of Love."

HTH

[OhioLisa]

Wow, cool link Lixie. PseudoScot, you might want to tell your friend she would be better off to just sell her hair, then donate the money to charity. That would be my choice if ever I cut.

[florenonite]

I agree, Nightshade. It is cool

[Gemma]

Considering how questionable LOL and other hair donation places seem, I'd strongly recommend selling the hair to a wig making company and giving the money to a worthy cause.

[Shermie Girl]

If she's looking for an alternative place to donate she could try http://www.matteroftrust.org/programs/hairmatsinfo.html. These people use hair to create mats to clean up oil spills. The best part is that they'll take hair in any condition.

I wish I had known about this organization when I was chopping all my hair off, after my henna removal disaster. I would have been happy to send it to them. As it was, I did toss some out off over my deck railing so that little birdies could collect it and use it for nests. They must have liked it, because it disappeared very quickly.