Free/discount hair cuts

[thebratqueen]

I found this out by accident. Sadly my own hair is not yet long enough for me to be able to do this, but if you have long hair that you're going to get cut, as in 10 inches or more that's going to be cut off, you can not only donate it to Locks of Love but apparently there are salons that will give you a free and/or discounted haircut if you go to

Comments

[elfbystarlight]

Found the exact figures so am adding here for clarity (there are a lot of links up there). These were calculated by Flaxen here using the figures from Locks of Love's own webpages.

"A little math using information from LoL's own website and the BBB:
LoL receives about 2000 donations per week, by mail.
That's 104,000 per year.
Let's say that only half of that is usable for wigs.(Or use another fraction, if you desire.)
That's 52,000 per year.
It takes 6-10 ponytails to make a wig.
Ok, let's say each one takes 10.
That's potentially 5200 wigs per year.
Now, in fiscal year 2002, how many wigs did LoL provide?

113.

That's a lot of donated hair not going directly to an ill child. I hope this will be of use for anyone who is feeling pressured to cut their hair for such an emotional cause."

The BBB report shows that in addition to making these 113 hair pieces, they repaired 22 more and made 39 synthetic hair pieces. It also shows that they made over $150,000 from the hair *sales*.

The offers of reduced price haircuts for donors are genuine, so if that is your primary motivation, then fair enough. However, I do think that anyone considering donating should do so with full information about the end result before they make their choice.

[thebratqueen]

Interesting stuff! I only knew about LoL from it being pimped on Queer Eye. Their website seems pretty straightforward about saying that they do sell hair donations, but that does raise the question of what do they then use the money for.

[elfbystarlight]

It has been suggested that less than 1% of donated hair goes for wigs that Locks of Love then charge for. I realise that those without long hair will probably not be aware of this - and much of it is not *directly* the fault of LoL - but particularly in America there is a very real issue of women with long hair being hassled by people who *mean* well to donate their hair because it's such a good cause. Not by Locks of Love, but by people who have donated and want others to donate. There are people who deliberately grow and cut their hair to donate, and that is fine, it is their choice to do so. But the vocal ones hassling people to do the same are the ones who do not do the research, do not look at the numbers and are swept away by the idea that their hair will go to a kid who needs it, when this is statistically extremely unlikely.

It's something of a hot button, so I apologise if I've been a little emphatic here.

[thebratqueen]

No, I appreciate you pointing it out. Like I say all I knew was that the Queer Eye guys pimped it and then I saw the free haircuts mentioned on their website. I'm totally out of the loop on long hair culture - heck, I didn't even know there was one - so it's all news to me.