From the September 1, 2004 edition of the New Castle Record
When 10-year-old Tiffani Smith of New Castle decided to play football, she knew the first thing she would probably have to do was cut her hair. She also knew she wanted to donate 10 inches of her long, blonde hair to the Locks of Love, a non-profit foundation that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children with long-term medical hair loss.
“Tiffanni has a dear friend named Scotty who is currently residing in Washington, D.C., at the Children’s Inn, a home away from home for children and their families,” said her mother, Dawn Smith. “Scotty is being treated for cancer of his entire body and he used to love to play with Tiffani’s hair.”
As the story goes, Tiffani would tell Scotty that if she could she would give him her hair. Well, she finally got to do exactly that when she hopped up in the chair at Unique Hair Fashions and told Brenda Bostic to cut it all off.
Unique Hair Fashions on Middle Street in New Castle is now a participant in the program. Bostic, the owner and operator, said, “If they grow it, I’ll cut it for free for this worthy cause.”
Nancy Surface, who donated 18 inches of hair, said, “The lady that cut my hair was really nervous because it was down past my waist.”
Elizabeth Surface and Ashley Dudding have also donated to Locks of Love.
The charitable organization was founded by Madonna Coffman when she was in her 20s and lost her hair after a hepatitis vaccination. With medical help Coffman recovered. Some 15 years later when her 4-year-old daughter developed alopecia (baldness), Coffman said it was ten times harder to deal with than was her own baldness earlier in her life. It was then that she gave up all her other charity work and started volunteering full time for LOL inspired by her daughter’s recovery.
For a while her garage contained lots of mail and donated hair until she finally got her own office space.
Since its beginning LOL has gotten lots of support from the media as well as volunteers. It has also received more than 2,000 donations of hair via mail with 80 percent of them being from children. The hairpieces are custom fit for children who have lost their natural hair due to an autoimmune disease called alopecia areata for which there is no known cure. Hair loss can also be the result of other causes such as severe burns, radiation or any number of other reasons.
Because most of the recipients of the custom made hairpieces are girls who want long hair, LOL only takes hair in 10-inch lengths or longer because the manufacturing of the hairpiece takes up two inches. It takes between six and 10 donated ponytails to make one hairpiece. Locks of Love requires donors to put their hair into a ponytail before it is cut.
Shorter lengths can be donated but are usually sold to help offset the costs of making the hairpieces which are all done by hand and range in price from $3,000 to as high as $6,000. Since the foundation does help boys as well, some of the shorter pieces may be used instead of sold.
Anyone wishing to get involved either by cutting hair or donating hair can do so online at www.locksoflove.org where further information can be obtained and the forms downloaded. People from all over the world, both men and women of all races and color, have made donations of their hair.
– Prepared by Shelly Koon
