Let Down Your Hair

 

Some of you may remember a few years ago when Tessa found a pair of scissors.  I was devastated as I came home to the bag full of gorgeous curls that Guy had cleaned up, and a hack-job of a mullet on my toddler.  Her hair.  Her beautiful hair...

Last week I was giving Jonah a well needed trim,  using candy as an incentive for sitting still, when Tess walked in.  "If I let you cut my hair, will I get candy too?"

I had been dying to trim the scraggly ends of her hair.  "Sure."  I said.

Guy had actually been suggesting we cut her hair short to eliminate the hair-brushing battle we go through every morning.  While her long tresses were stunning when properly curried, about 10 minutes later they looked disheveled again.    The thought was not so welcome to me.  I still have a thing for that kid's hair.

When she stood in front of me with the scissors, I realized that her hair might actually be long enough to fullfull the requirements for a Locks of Love donation, but that if I trimmed it now, it would be too short to donate for a long time.  We got a ruler, and sure enough, by taking off 10 inches she would be left with about a shoulder-length bob.  Though she had scoffed at the Locks of Love idea before, suddenly she was totally okay with it.  Candy will do that for you.

So, following the instructions on the website I put her hair into a ponytail and began to cut at the 10 inch mark.  It was going great at first, and the hair from around her face was first to seek it's new place.  It tumbled sweetly to her shoulder and looked really cute.  But as the scissors continued to chew at the bound knot of hair at the nape of her neck, I got freaked out.  It was much shorter in the back, given the lower hairline there, and soon I was cutting hair whose origins were about an inch from the scissor blade.  I stopped far too late to do anything but continue, and gave Guy that "eek" look. 

Wincing, I finished the job.  Tessa bounded away from me to go catch a gander in the mirror, her hair bouncing in the air.  I sat with a pony-tail in my hand of gorgeous, tumbling waves. "Waaa", I said to Guy.

But Locks of Love is such a worthy cause.  I never knew that many children who undergo chemo-therapy for brain cancer never grow their hair back again.  And there are several other disorders that Locks of Love mentions on their website that cause permanent hair loss.  It takes between 6 and 10 donated pony-tails to create one hair piece for a child.  That is a lot of hair.  I also learned that even color treated and grey hair can be donated, as any hair that cannot be used directly for the hair pieces for children is sold to wig makers and the funds used to offset to costs of production.

We will mail Tessa's pony in the morning. 

For her, the hair will grow back.  Others are not so lucky.

It took all the sting away, thinking of another mother's child bouncing around in Tessa's lovely hair.  I can only imagine what it means to a mother to have her child feel beautiful again.

Not a bad trade for a few pieces of candy.