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Digital Dragon, that’s kewl! 🙂 I did that back in college. Cut off 14″ and that still brought it to just below my shoulder blades (the shortest I’ve ever had it). It’s currently to the point that I can almost sit on it again, since I stopped maintaining it at above my waist. Was contemplating donating again this year, but I’m still very undecided (not sure if I just want to keep it that long for a while).
Thankfully I was nowhere near able to sit on my own hair yet. That might have been awkward! 😉
Go ahead and appreciate your hair for awhile though! I will probably do the same next time it grows out, at least for a little while (and I can’t stand combing it out anymore).
The bad part is though that Locks of Love is a scam. They sell like 90% of the hair they get. They have only made like a very small number of actual wigs for people in need, around a 1000 since the beginning. Just enough to stay a legal non-profit company. The excuse they use is that most people’s hair has been chemically treated and it not worth using. Yet the people who buy it seem to do okay. But yeah, they are kinda cheats from my understanding.
See the link…
http://badhairday.typepad.com/bad_hair_day/2006/07/locks_of_love_i.htmlSell your hair on ebay…and donate the money you make to a local charity.
Wow, that’s interesting to learn. I haven’t sent it off yet, but I was considering sending it to one of the places suggested by the Canadian Cancer Society. That’s a good suggestion about eBay too.
That’s kinda sad actually, if it’s true…
Thanks, whippetluv!
that is horrible!! I’m so glad the the charity work I do so for charities we have known for years.There are way too many scams out there now
It’s not quite a scam.
It’s just kinda… misleading. You can check out the wikipedia on it. They do make wigs for people in need, but they don’t give them away free (you pay on an income based sliding scale) and they almost never give them to chemo patients, becuse that’s a temporary condition, and they’re apparently only interested in helping those who are permanently bald. And young, of course, you can’t get a wig from them at all over a certain age. And you also have to send in an essay and photos. Oh, and many of the hair donations aren’t made into wigs, they’re resold to get money to run their programs. What exactly their “programs” need all that money for, I’m not sure.
So… they are still a charity, they’re just not quite as nice of one as you might think.
Yeah upon reading the material, I have to say I don’t feel it is a scam, but very misleading. And if that mild deception is used to garner more donations, then I guess it could be considered scam-like.
However, since good, usable human hair is not readily available and therefore at a premium, providing the awareness and a convenient means for people to donate it (eventually) to those who make wigs available for sale is at least something positive.
I do feel it is reasonable for them to charge for wigs (and offer a sliding scale for different income levels); I just wish it seemed more obvious that was how it operated.
I do prefer to donate to charities that keep less of the donation for themselves however, by keeping operating costs down.
This reminds me of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and its big ‘corporationy’ feel. Turns out many folks were appalled that they were into “wildlife management” rather than “animal welfare and conservation.” While I can see the WWFs point–there’s always going to be humans who want to hunt etc, so we just have to make sure there’s enough animals to supply that demand and keep the species alive too–I would not appreciate knowing that was what my donation was going primarily toward, since I am more conservation-minded (e.g. set aside untouched wilderness or managed parks with no hunting allowed, etc).
Anyway, rambling-off now. 😉
I was looking up stuff on selling human hair. It’s weird! Though apparently it doesn’t sell for as much as you might think, because there are communities of third world people who make a living growing hair! (Or at least part of their living.)
Ok when I saw WWF the first thing I though of was the World Wrestling Federation. I did not know WWF was used for other things
Dragon Master wrote:Ok when I saw WWF the first thing I though of was the World Wrestlin Federation. I did not know WWF was used for other things
World Wildlife Fund sued World Wrestling Federation over the use of the acronym. Now it’s World Wrestling Entertainment.
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