What's the deal with Locks of Love?

[klcqtee]

On the recent thread "Dumbest hair comments" a lot of people were discussing how Locks of Love is a sham of a charity. They did make a valid point that since real hair wigs are so hard to maintain, why give it to a child? Other than that, what's wrong with the organization?

[manderly]

They tend to throw away most of the donations they receive, they do not give "free" wigs to kids with cancer or alopecia (they sell them), and I think they also have some shady accounting practices.

If you search locks of love in the forum you'll find a couple threads about why we dislike them so much :)

[lora410]

Well, for starters most of the hair donated is tossed out or sold. They make a HUGE profit for themselves on selling hair donated to them; so not all the hair is used for wigs. . They also do not say the wigs are free which means they most likely charge a fee for them. However Pantene beautiful lengths does starte the wifs are distributed for free to women with cancer and they work directly with the america cancer society.

[Delila]

Here's a link (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/06/fashion/06locks.html?)to an article in the New York Times about the organization's practices.

As I see it, the basic problem is that most people just don't have hair that's useful to a wigmaker, even if it's long enough.

People running these 'hair donation' organizations aren't doing enough to make sure that people really understand what's needed, which kinds of hair are useful, etc..

Ordinary folks have become convinced that they're 'helping kids with cancer' but that's NOT Locks of Love's stated purpose.

[klcqtee]

Thanks for the article Delila! I tried looking online before posting, but most of what I found was promotional, or advertisements.

[HairColoredHair]

Also, here (http://charityreports.bbb.org/public/report.aspx?charityid=1839) is the better business bureau's report on Locks of Love, which basically states that LoL has not disclosed their finances to meet the financial standards for a charity.

[LadyEliza]

Hair for wigs must be "virgin" hair, meaning never any chemical treatment at all. That leaves out almost all Western hair!

But no one is told that, and often women donate their hair thinking they are doing the right thing, and the hair is thrown away. The Donor might be secretly in tears over losing her long hair, but thinks that at least it's being used, when it's NOT.

So when someone presures you to donate you can say "my hair is the wrong type, unfortunately I can't". Unless, of course, you have never used any chemical treatement in your hair :)

From the Wiki

Locks of Love has received criticism for its practice of selling donated hair, rather than using it in wigs as the donors expect. They refer to the hair they sell as "unusable material," but the buyers are using it to make wigs. According to a 2003 report by the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBB_Wise_Giving_Alliance), in 2002 alone Locks of Love had raised over $150,000 by selling donated hair and had received another $213,000 in charitable contributions and grants, but provided only 113 human-hair wigs.
Locks of Love representatives are frequent guests on The Oprah Winfrey Show (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oprah_Winfrey_Show) and other daytime television shows, where they provide haircuts to guests and audience members. Though the representatives and show hosts normally suggest that the hair collected during the show will go into a wig, that the wigs are given free of charge to children with cancer, neither of these outcomes is guaranteed.The organization was formed to help people with the illness of alopecia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alopecia), not to help cancer victims.


The Better Business Bureau report issued July 2008 states that Locks of Love "does not meet one or more standards" of the 20 standard for Charity Accountability. It does meet 19 of the 20 standards.[3] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locks_of_Love#cite_note-2)
The Better Business Bureau reports that Locks of Love made $352,401 from "unusable material sales."[4] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locks_of_Love#cite_note-3)


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locks_of_Love#Criticisms

[Delila]

The thing that gets me really, is that LOL could change their stated goals, and actually do the work that people think they do (i.e., providing wigs for cancer patients), but they haven't. Kind of shabby.

[creativehoney]

I donated my hair to locks of love 2 years ago. My hair was almost 2 my behind. It was "virgen" hair.

If they are a sham, oh well. My heart was in the right place.
It was gonna be thrown away anywayz.
Ill just do a little research if I ever decide to do that again.
(I got a chin length bob cut when my daughter was born.)

[Cindi Eponabri]

When I cut my hair several years ago and was going to send my locks to LOL and then I heard that they throw most of the hair way, so I kept mine. I still have it in a bag around here somewhere....

[Natalia]

On the recent thread "Dumbest hair comments" a lot of people were discussing how Locks of Love is a sham of a charity. They did make a valid point that since real hair wigs are so hard to maintain, why give it to a child? Other than that, what's wrong with the organization?

My problem with them is that A) they dont give free wigs and gouge them on price because they are "real" hair. B) They reject alot of what they get even though the hair goes through processing to get thee. And C) They waste so much hair in the process of making the wigs that it is very unusual to see one that is very long. The longest one i have seen was a shoulder length one and the hair it took to make that was 3x as long as that! If it were me if rather not have some wig rubbing against my bald head just to end up with 4 inches of hair. Another problem with making wigs is matching textures. It takes many many donations to create one wig. Id rather wear a scarf and grow my own hair. Just an opinion thouh :)

[bakertwins2004]

this is so sad to me. I have donated my hair to them twice now and was thinking of doing it again. I did it for the right reasons. But sad to think no good came of it.

[manderly]

this is so sad to me. I have donated my hair to them twice now and was thinking of doing it again. I did it for the right reasons. But sad to think no good came of it.


That's also the upsetting part; so many people do it out of the kindness of their hearts and desire to do something good, but it's totally different from what they portray it to be :(

It's like having a canned food drive then throwing out all the veggies, spam, pork and beans, and vienna sausage because it's not good enough. Keeping all the Stagg chili, but opening it up and pouring it all into one pot, cooking it up in a parking lot and charging $2 a bowl. :rolleyes: If that's how a food drive worked, people would be irate!


ETA: Look into Pantene's Beautiful Lengths if you wish to donate your hair again. From what we've read and seen so far, they actually DO what LoL pretends to do. :)

[florenonite]

I donated my hair to locks of love 2 years ago. My hair was almost 2 my behind. It was "virgen" hair.

If they are a sham, oh well. My heart was in the right place.
It was gonna be thrown away anywayz.
Ill just do a little research if I ever decide to do that again.
(I got a chin length bob cut when my daughter was born.)


this is so sad to me. I have donated my hair to them twice now and was thinking of doing it again. I did it for the right reasons. But sad to think no good came of it.

If you're wanting to donate hair I would recommend Pantene's Beautiful Lengths, who do wigs for cancer patients and I believe do them for free (though I'm not certain). Definitely research the organisation first, though, to avoid disappointment.

[Delila]

...It's like having a canned food drive then throwing out all the veggies, spam, pork and beans, and vienna sausage because it's not good enough. Keeping all the Stagg chili, but opening it up and pouring it all into one pot, cooking it up in a parking lot and charging $2 a bowl. :rolleyes: If that's how a food drive worked, people would be irate!
...

This is a good analogy, but now I'm hungry!

[desertgirl]

I succumbed to the donating hair to Locks of Love pressure too about 2 and a half years ago. It was virgin hair as well. It was only after that that I started learning a bit about it's practices. Eh, oh well. Won't do that again.

I did learn a couple things from the experience: 1) while short hair might work for my face shape (long face, shorter hair to provide width) it did not look good overall for my body (I'm also 6' tall. Short hair on a 6' tall, average built girl just wasn't working for me. It didn't say feminine or beautiful) 2) It was the shortest I've ever had my hair, and it took the longest to do anything with it! My no-nonsense lifestyle went out the window. 3) short hair (especially if made short to add face width) does not look good after being stuffed under a head-scarf all day!

On the plus side, growing my hair out after starting fresh has given me wonderful hair to work with!

[LadyLongLocks]

If anyone asks about Locks of Love, I have them read these atricles:


http://www.trentstampstake.org/2007/09/hair-raising-charity-news.html


http://www.trentstampstake.org/2007/09/locks-of-love-responds-with-passion-and.html


http://www.trentstampstake.org/2007/09/whos-liar.html

:)hope this helps.....

I also post these links on my youtube (http://youtube.com/user/JJJLongHair4u2c) channel.I have had lots of people ask or tell me I should donate my hair to LOL.:mad:

[Fifty-Five]

I wish I had a link for where I read it, but a while back, I read that on average Locks of Love brings in about 2000 donations a week! If you take in to account that it takes about 10 ponytails to make one wig, they make/repair less than 200 wigs per year altogether, and that they sell a lot of what they receive to wigmakers for modelling and personal use... well, it's hard not form an opinion based on that alone. =P

It seems like so many people jump on the LoL bandwagon, though, not really for a cause, but because it provides an 'excuse' to justify making someone else cut their hair or cut their own. I don't know about people here, but I know a few people who have cut their hair and donated because 'well, I was thinking of cutting it anyway, but wasn't sure. This is for a good cause, so it made it worth it.'

Besides that, I've got a point of view where a wig isn't as important as the funding for the child's treatment. Rather than a wig, most children do prefer a cap or bandana anyway. Rather than give hair, maybe donate money (most important, obviously) or caps and bandanas? ...but I guess it's not as much of a spectacle as broadcasting a long-haired woman being sheared on the Oprah Winfrey Show. What a shame =(

[Demetrue]

LOL usually does NOT provide wigs for children with cancer who have lost hair due to chemo or radiation, they only sell wigs, at a discount, to people who have permanant hair loss, such as alopecia. They only use hair that is virgin and not gray, so if you hair has been dyed, bleached, permed, highlighted or has any gray in it, it will not be used to make the alopecia wig. People must go through a process to be chosen to receive a wig, and then it is sold to them at a discount. The money from the hair that is not used, but sold to wig makers, extension makers, mattress companies, tennis ball companies, etc is supposed to go towards funding alopecia research and of course, running LOL and paying staff workers' salaries. According to the NY Times article, much of the donated hair has to be thrown away. So: NO, hair donated to LOL is NOT going towards giving free wigs to sick children who are battling cancer.

[Kerynna]

Here's another worthy use for unused hair after a length cut. http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=4301859&page=1
...a new product called "Smart Grow," which is made from human hair. "Human hair -- when I saw this I couldn't believe my eyes, " he said. The hair is pressed into mats that are used to keep the soil moist and prevent weeds. Naranjo says it works so well to stop weeds from growing he has ordered 300 more pounds of it for the spring. The hair mats saved him $45,000 in herbicides last year, and $200,000 in labor costs, because he did not have to hire so many people to pull out weeds. "Without the hairs, I would probably be out of business or have to close down," Naranjo said.

[Eden Iris]

That is great! I love the idea of cut hair being used to grow plants. Right now I just throw trimmings in the compost pile.

[musicmomma]

That is great! I love the idea of cut hair being used to grow plants. Right now I just throw trimmings in the compost pile.

i do the same exact thing. :D

[Krystyle]

There is another charity out there. The name of the charity eludes me right now but they accept all types of hair, chemically treated and damaged and what have you. They don't make wigs with it though, they use it for oil spills. They make it into some hairmat and in case of an oil spill, they it out to the site and put it all around because the hair can soak the oil up. Hair apparently is one of the most absorbent materials out there. I thought this was so neat and cool, I knew I'd never forget about it but now I can't even remember the charity name. I'll go find it and report back.

[Nightshade]

There is another charity out there. The name of the charity eludes me right now but they accept all types of hair, chemically treated and damaged and what have you. They don't make wigs with it though, they use it for oil spills. They make it into some hairmat and in case of an oil spill, they it out to the site and put it all around because the hair can soak the oil up. Hair apparently is one of the most absorbent materials out there. I thought this was so neat and cool, I knew I'd never forget about it but now I can't even remember the charity name. I'll go find it and report back.

Matter of Trust (http://www.matteroftrust.org/programs/hairmatsinfo.html):)

[thankyousir74]

Wow, Nightshade, that link is *really* cool! What a good idea! I had never heard of this organization before!

[Nightshade]

Wow, Nightshade, that link is *really* cool! What a good idea! I had never heard of this organization before!

Indeed :) I save all the brushed cat hair from our 4 kids and send it in to them.