sparrowswing
April 7th, 2015, 04:37 PM
I know this has been discussed before, but most of those threads seem to have been archived and the few results that came up in a search were several years old, so I decided to start a new thread.
I used to grow from APL to Waist and cut back to APL, every other November like clockwork, to donate to Locks of Love. The first couple of times, I'd get a lovely letter thanking me for my donation and explaining the wig-making process. Over the years the letters got shorter, then became postcards simply acknowledging receipt of my donation, then nothing at all. That was when I first researched LoL and learned of their shady reputation. I haven't cut my hair since.
Lately I've been considering cutting back from just-touching-knee to somewhere in the tailbone-to-classic realm. This would result in a long enough chunk of hair to make a donation. I'm happy to adjust the length of cut based on the requirements where I intend to donate, but I'm having trouble making that decision. There's no rush - I'm not holding the scissors yet, and probably won't be for a few months - but I'm curious if there is information I'm missing before I make a choice.
Here's the information I've gathered so far:
.
Locks of Love throws out up to 80% of the hair they receive (with roughly another 50% being thrown out by the wig company that creates the wigs for them). Only a very small percentage of the donations they receive ever become wigs, and those wigs are then sold. Ostensibly they are sold to children with alopecia on a sliding scale based on income, but I haven't been able to verify that, and there are enough rumors circulating about the hair being made into extensions for sales that I'm really not comfortable even considering this an option.
.
Pantene Beautiful Lengths (http://pantene.com/en-us/experience-main-section2/beautiful-lengths) is far more reputable. They require 8-15 donations (minimum 8" ponytail, less than 5% gray) to create a single wig, which is made in a standard adult size and then sent to the American Cancer Society to be donated to women with cancer.
.
Wigs for Kids (http://www.wigsforkids.org/) (Ohio) requires 20-30 donations (minimum 12" ponytail, no gray) to make a single wig. Each child selected for the program is carefully measured, and the wig is then custom-made to fit that child. This results in much higher quality wigs, which are guaranteed to go to a child suffering from illness-related hair loss (usually cancer). They have been doing this for 30+ years, so I trust them to do things right.
.
Wigs4Kids (https://www.wigs4kids.org/) is a completely separate charity that only donates to children's hospitals within a few counties in Michigan, but more than 50% of their donations go to children with cancer. Also donating custom-fit wigs to children, their requirements are less stringent (minimum 10" ponytail, less than 10% gray), and they also accept donations of new wigs and extensions, both human and synthetic. They have a very similar Hair Donation Form to that of Wigs For Kids, which can be confusing, but they are definitely a separate organization.
.
It should be noted that all have similar requirements for hair that has been colored or otherwise chemically processed: Temporary treatments are fine, but processed hair cannot hold up to the chemical processing involved in cleaning and preparing hair for the wig-making process. Also, all of the organizations sell at least some of their unusable donations (the ones that are too short or too gray, primarily) to other wig-makers to cover overhead. Mostly it seems to boil down to whether you want your hair going to a sick child (who will grow out of the wig in a year or so) or a woman with cancer.
Are there other reputable hair donation organizations? If so, what are their requirements and standards? Does anyone here have experience with any of these organizations that they would be willing to share?
I used to grow from APL to Waist and cut back to APL, every other November like clockwork, to donate to Locks of Love. The first couple of times, I'd get a lovely letter thanking me for my donation and explaining the wig-making process. Over the years the letters got shorter, then became postcards simply acknowledging receipt of my donation, then nothing at all. That was when I first researched LoL and learned of their shady reputation. I haven't cut my hair since.
Lately I've been considering cutting back from just-touching-knee to somewhere in the tailbone-to-classic realm. This would result in a long enough chunk of hair to make a donation. I'm happy to adjust the length of cut based on the requirements where I intend to donate, but I'm having trouble making that decision. There's no rush - I'm not holding the scissors yet, and probably won't be for a few months - but I'm curious if there is information I'm missing before I make a choice.
Here's the information I've gathered so far:
.
Locks of Love throws out up to 80% of the hair they receive (with roughly another 50% being thrown out by the wig company that creates the wigs for them). Only a very small percentage of the donations they receive ever become wigs, and those wigs are then sold. Ostensibly they are sold to children with alopecia on a sliding scale based on income, but I haven't been able to verify that, and there are enough rumors circulating about the hair being made into extensions for sales that I'm really not comfortable even considering this an option.
.
Pantene Beautiful Lengths (http://pantene.com/en-us/experience-main-section2/beautiful-lengths) is far more reputable. They require 8-15 donations (minimum 8" ponytail, less than 5% gray) to create a single wig, which is made in a standard adult size and then sent to the American Cancer Society to be donated to women with cancer.
.
Wigs for Kids (http://www.wigsforkids.org/) (Ohio) requires 20-30 donations (minimum 12" ponytail, no gray) to make a single wig. Each child selected for the program is carefully measured, and the wig is then custom-made to fit that child. This results in much higher quality wigs, which are guaranteed to go to a child suffering from illness-related hair loss (usually cancer). They have been doing this for 30+ years, so I trust them to do things right.
.
Wigs4Kids (https://www.wigs4kids.org/) is a completely separate charity that only donates to children's hospitals within a few counties in Michigan, but more than 50% of their donations go to children with cancer. Also donating custom-fit wigs to children, their requirements are less stringent (minimum 10" ponytail, less than 10% gray), and they also accept donations of new wigs and extensions, both human and synthetic. They have a very similar Hair Donation Form to that of Wigs For Kids, which can be confusing, but they are definitely a separate organization.
.
It should be noted that all have similar requirements for hair that has been colored or otherwise chemically processed: Temporary treatments are fine, but processed hair cannot hold up to the chemical processing involved in cleaning and preparing hair for the wig-making process. Also, all of the organizations sell at least some of their unusable donations (the ones that are too short or too gray, primarily) to other wig-makers to cover overhead. Mostly it seems to boil down to whether you want your hair going to a sick child (who will grow out of the wig in a year or so) or a woman with cancer.
Are there other reputable hair donation organizations? If so, what are their requirements and standards? Does anyone here have experience with any of these organizations that they would be willing to share?