I’ve always had very thick hair. It’s thicker than just about anyone else’s I know. When I was little, it was a huge burden for me and my mother. My mother would fix my hair every morning resulting in physical pain for me and emotional pain for her.

As I got older, I learned how to fix my own hair in the best way I could. I became very good at it and would get compliments on my hair daily. I would eventually consider my hair my best asset. Very few people had hair like mine.

I first got the idea to donate my hair to Locks of Love a few years ago. My hair had almost always been long. After a brief “short” phase in high school, I continued to keep my hair longer. A little over a year ago, I decided to actually go through with it. I started growing my hair out longer than usual.

After a year of not cutting it at all, my hair came down to the waist band of my pants. It was by far the longest it had ever been in my life. While I enjoyed having long luscious hair for a while, I eventually became annoyed by it and knew it was time. Unfortunately I was always chickening out. I was second guessing myself. I had spent so much time growing it out that I hated to lose it. My vanity was taking over my good will.

Then one day while I was at work, a young woman came into the store where I worked. She was very skinny and frail looking, and had a hat covering her bald head. She in fact had cancer. As she proceeded try on different hats it hit me like a ton of bricks; I had to cut my hair so that people like her could have hair again. That day I made an appointment to cut my hair off. She was here trying on cute hats to cover her head and I had more than enough hair to share.

Last Thursday, I cut 11 inches off of my head. I was amazed how much lighter I felt. Once the hair was gone, I didn’t think about it again.

I love my new haircut and I love the idea of giving someone with cancer a chance to feel better about this terrible time in their life. I was blessed with thick hair so why not share the blessing?