Haircut for one means new hope for many more





By Angie Thompson

angie.thompson@gaflnews.com



TIFTON — Tammy Byrd had a lot of hair and a little inspiration. Now, she has many new friends thankful that she decided on a shorter style.

Byrd first read about the Locks of Love program in Redbook, just when she was considering a new haircut last summer. But inspired by the Locks of Love program, she decided to let her hair keep growing.

Tuesday, a Tifton hairstylist sheared Byrd’s foot-long ponytail.

Locks of Love is a not-for-profit organization that provides hairpieces for children afflicted with medical hair loss. Most of the 600 children the organization has helped since 1997 suffer from an auto-immune condition called alopecia areata, for which there is no known cure. Others have suffered severe burns or endured radiation treatment to the brain stem. Still others have dermatological conditions that result in permanent hair loss.

Locks of Love provides children with a custom-made, vacuum-fitted hairpiece made entirely from donated human hair. The vacuum fit is designed for children who have experienced a total loss of scalp hair. The wigs do not require tape or glue to hold in place.

The custom-fitted hair prosthetics are provided free of charge or on a sliding scale to children whose families meet the Locks of Love Board of Directors guidelines.

Donated hair must be at least 10 inches in length, but the organization prefers 12-inch lengths because most of the children served by the program are girls who feel more socially accepted with longer hair.

Beauty Villa stylist/owner Pam Morrison secured Byrd’s hair with a rubberband and then left enough length to be able to style the hair later. She placed a second rubberband below the first and then braided the hair.

“I was tired of the long hair really,” Byrd said. “It is just hair. I am lucky that it grows very fast.”

Some of the shorter lengths that have been separated by hand from each donated ponytail are used to make the boys’ hairpieces. Custom hairpieces start at $3,000 retail.

Byrd is the third of Morrison’s customers to participate in the Locks of Love program. Morrison doesn’t charge for the cuts.

Byrd said she prepared her students for the change in her looks by reading a story to them Tuesday. “Erandi’s Braids,” a story about a girl whose family needed a new fishing net, seemed to be most appropriate. The girl sold her hair, over her mother’s objections, to pay for the net the family needed to make a living.

“We talked about me donating my hair and they didn’t like it, but I wanted to prepare them,” Byrd said.

Morrison will place the long braid of hair in a plastic bag and mail it to Locks of Love in a padded envelope.

For more information about the Locks of Love program, log on to the web site at www.locksoflove.org, or call toll free 1-888-896-1588.



To contact reporter Angie Thompson, call 382-4321, ext. 208.