MAKING THE CUT l DONATING HAIR TO GOOD CAUSE
June 07, 2018
Shearing Is Caring
School Collects Ponytails For Cancer Patients’ Wigs
By NOLAN STOUT
Daily News-Record 6/7/18
BROADWAY — Leah Siler wasn’t nervous as she went for her first haircut Wednesday.
And rather than let her locks go to waste, the 6-year-old decided to donate them to a good cause.
She was among 25 students, parents, teachers and administrators who cut 8 inches of their hair to donate to Pantene Beautiful Lengths during an assembly at John C. Myers Elementary School.
Pantene Beautiful Lengths is a charitable campaign by hair product company Pantene. The company collects hair donations and gives them to HairUWear, a wig-making company, which provides them to the American Cancer Society to distribute at no cost.
The wigs are used by cancer patients and those who suffer from alopecia areata, a condition that causes hair loss in round patches and can lead to total baldness.
Volunteers from salons throughout the area put donors’ hair in ponytails and cut 8 inches off. It takes six to 10 8-inch ponytails to make a wig, according to Pantene.
Leah, a kindergartner, said she feels “really good” about how her hair turned out and likes it better short.
Her mother, fifth-grade teacher Amanda Siler, joined her daughter in getting a haircut. Siler also donated four years ago and decided to participate again because cancer has affected their family. “We don’t need it,” Siler said. “It’s just hair.” Assistant Principal Tammy May started the donation assembly at the school after she came to the school in 2010. In the past, the hair was sent to Locks of Love, but May said it was time to use a different organization.
May has cut her hair seven times over the past 17 years, stretching back to her time at Plains Elementary School. May said donations at Plains reached 50 people by the time she went to John C. Myers. May has a lot of hair, she said, and donating it is the
right thing to do. “It’s just about giving back,” she said. “If you’ve got it to give, why not?”
ABOVE: Saige Tomlinson, a second-grader at John C. Myers Elementary School, looks at the hair she’s donating to Pantene Beautiful Lengths at an assembly on Wednesday.
BELOW: Amanda Bolton (right), who works at South Mane Salon in Harrisonburg, holds up a length of Rockingham County School Board member Jackie Lohr’s hair during the donation drive.
Ann Hammer hugs her grandson, Rylee, a first- grader at John C. Myers Elementary School, after cutting her hair to donate to Pantene Beautiful Lengths at an assembly on Wednesday.
School Collects Ponytails For Cancer Patients’ Wigs
By NOLAN STOUT
Daily News-Record 6/7/18
BROADWAY — Leah Siler wasn’t nervous as she went for her first haircut Wednesday.
And rather than let her locks go to waste, the 6-year-old decided to donate them to a good cause.
She was among 25 students, parents, teachers and administrators who cut 8 inches of their hair to donate to Pantene Beautiful Lengths during an assembly at John C. Myers Elementary School.
Pantene Beautiful Lengths is a charitable campaign by hair product company Pantene. The company collects hair donations and gives them to HairUWear, a wig-making company, which provides them to the American Cancer Society to distribute at no cost.
The wigs are used by cancer patients and those who suffer from alopecia areata, a condition that causes hair loss in round patches and can lead to total baldness.
Volunteers from salons throughout the area put donors’ hair in ponytails and cut 8 inches off. It takes six to 10 8-inch ponytails to make a wig, according to Pantene.
Leah, a kindergartner, said she feels “really good” about how her hair turned out and likes it better short.
Her mother, fifth-grade teacher Amanda Siler, joined her daughter in getting a haircut. Siler also donated four years ago and decided to participate again because cancer has affected their family. “We don’t need it,” Siler said. “It’s just hair.” Assistant Principal Tammy May started the donation assembly at the school after she came to the school in 2010. In the past, the hair was sent to Locks of Love, but May said it was time to use a different organization.
May has cut her hair seven times over the past 17 years, stretching back to her time at Plains Elementary School. May said donations at Plains reached 50 people by the time she went to John C. Myers. May has a lot of hair, she said, and donating it is the
right thing to do. “It’s just about giving back,” she said. “If you’ve got it to give, why not?”
ABOVE: Saige Tomlinson, a second-grader at John C. Myers Elementary School, looks at the hair she’s donating to Pantene Beautiful Lengths at an assembly on Wednesday.
BELOW: Amanda Bolton (right), who works at South Mane Salon in Harrisonburg, holds up a length of Rockingham County School Board member Jackie Lohr’s hair during the donation drive.
Ann Hammer hugs her grandson, Rylee, a first- grader at John C. Myers Elementary School, after cutting her hair to donate to Pantene Beautiful Lengths at an assembly on Wednesday.
