Stella has been growing her hair for about two years now. She has gorgeous hair — capital G, gorgeous! It is really thick, with a nice wave in it. And you can see it’s grown quite long now … well past her shoulders. (If I could transplant some of it straight onto my head, trust me, I would!)
But she hasn’t been growing it long to enjoy it long; she’s been growing it so that she can donate it for cancer patients who would prefer to wear a wig. Wigs made from real hair are very expensive. But there are a number of charities that help out and Stella wants to help one of these charities.
She’s done this before (you can read about it here). But this time, cancer has a very real face for her. A dear friend of our family — her good friend’s mother — has been going through debilitating chemo treatments and, most recently, a life-changing 16-hour surgery on her leg and hip.
It was harder for Stella to cut her hair this time. She’d grown quite attached to it (and frankly, so had I, but it was her choice). She looked quite anxious sitting in the hair dresser’s chair. In the end, she left the salon with a super-cute inverted bob style.
I can tell she’s not comfortable with her new look yet. But she explained to me that since people liked her long hair (she gets compliments from strangers on it all the time), then it will probably make a really good wig. As her mom, I feel really proud of her. She’s beautiful — inside and out — just like Cassie.
Have you or your child donated your hair for cancer? If you want to send me your photos, I’d love to share and celebrate your donation here too! You can email them to me at julie [dot] communicate [at] gmail [dot] com.
Edited on July 25th to add:
My girlfriend Kelly, who has known Stella since the day she first came home from the hospital with me, just sent me the most amazing note. It reads:
Please tell Stella what a huge impact she has made. This was not even on my radar before hearing about this! I have been growing my hair for years and had no intention of starting over!!
It is all because of her selflessness that really humbled me. I sat down with my hair dresser and said ” just clean it up as usual”; I went to go get it washed and then Stella slipped into my mind. I got back to
the chair and said… “On second thought Cut it all! and prepare it for donation!”It felt really good and no regrets!
Hugs
Kelly
And here’s the awesome “After” photo:
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