The Shadow
WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) – For years, Lucy Vasquez says, she tried everything. She offered her daughter, Alexia Dos Santos, candy or toys, anything for Alexia to finally get a haircut.
But Alexia, 5, refused. Why would she want to cut her hair? Her long black curls stopped strangers in public and reminded Alexia of the fairy-tale princesses she admires.
But on Wednesday, Alexia, a kindergartner at Roger Bacon Academy, finally got her first-ever haircut at Fantasy Hair Land on South College Road.
Where bribes had failed, her mother says, Alexia chose to cut her hair so she could help another child who doesn’t have hair.
Since 1998, Locks of Love has collected donations of hair to make wigs for children who have lost hair for medical reasons.
Vasquez donates to Locks of Love every few years, the time it takes to grow her hair to the necessary 10 to 12 inches.
On Wednesday, Alexia sat in an airplane barber’s chair for her first haircut.
Vasquez said donating hair helps other children feel better about their appearance, but it’s also a great lesson for her daughter to learn how it feels to help someone else.
“I want to teach her to be compassionate,” Vasquez said. “It’s all about making the world a better place.”
After her haircut, Alexia ran her hands through her hair. Her fingers fluttered in the air a little as she got used to the feeling of her new style.
“It feels lighter,” she said, adding that it won’t take as long to brush the tangles out of her curls.
Donors from around the United States and Canada cut ponytails, at least 10 to 12 inches in length, and send them to Locks of Love, a nonprofit in West Palm Beach, Fla.
Volunteers sort the hair and ship it to a manufacturer, which makes wigs for financially disadvantaged children who have lost their hair for medical reasons, said Lauren Kukkamaa, communications director for the nonprofit.
It takes from six to 10 ponytails to make just one wig, she said.
Most of the children have alopecia areata, an autoimmune condition, which causes round patches of hair loss.
Other recipients have cancer or are burn patients.
Even when the cause of hair loss isn’t life threatening, Kukkamaa said, it’s still a life-altering experience for a child to lose his or her hair.
Vasquez is the director of Amigos Internacionales in Wilmington. In 2005, she arranged for about a half-dozen women and two men to donate their hair to Locks of Love.
Valerie Arnold, who owns Fantasy Hair Land, says about one customer a month donates to Locks of Love.
Donors are dedicated to helping someone else, Arnold said, because it takes years to grow the 10- to 12-inch ponytail required for a donation.
Carol Lendino, 54, of Wilmington hadn’t cut her hair for several years when she decided to donate.
But once she decided, she had to go for regular trimmings to encourage her hair to grow to the necessary length.
Lendino, who was at Fantasy Hair Land on Wednesday, donated her hair in 2006.
“It felt great,” she said. “It’s out there somewhere, on somebody, and they’re a happier person.”
