Hair Donation

When my sister-in-law was diagnosed with breast cancer recently I decided to donate my hair. My hair is a trademark, but this was a no-brainer. I absolutely wanted to donate it. I wondered if there was a way that my hair could be made into a wig for her.

The agencies I found have very specific criteria for length, color, health and chemical treatments. Very few make wigs for adults and I did not find any that make custom wigs. I'm sure they're out there, I just did not find them.

So, no problem on the length and my hair is very healthy. The problem comes when we get to color and chemical treatments. I'm close to the minimum 5% grey. Therefore I color my hair, which makes my potential donation unacceptable to most agencies.

Then I found Matter of Trust, an organization that accepts hair donations of any condition. They turn the hair and animal fiber into mats that are used to clean up oil spills, like the Cosco Busan Spill in the San Francisco Bay last November.

I am excited about this discovery and I feel very good about being able to make a donation that will go to a good cause. As for my sister-in-law, she found a couple of very good synthetic wigs.