Amy's decision to donate hair

Amy donates hair to charity

11th Ballarat Girl Guide, Amy Herzan, made the big decision to cut off her beautiful, long, blonde hair and to donate it to a worthy cause.  Well done, Amy.

Hair Donation to Variety Australia for Children with Alopecia.

by Amy Herzan.  Wednesday, 16 March 2016

At the start of November 2015, I thought it would be nice to try something different with my hair.

Mum suggested donating my hair as it was over 40 cm long. I decided to donate my hair to charity for wigs to be made for people with Cancer.

We researched on the internet information about donating hair and found that Pantene were no longer accepting pony tails but had a link to the Variety Australia website. We found out that they sell the ponytails to wig makers who make them to fit a child with Alopecia. Variety then buys the wigs back and donates them to the child. They use money raised from the sale of the ponytails and also other fundraising.

Alopecia is a disease that any age, your hair starts to fall out. Some people have injections into their head to try to regrow the hair back. This is really painful and not always successful. Others decide to wear a wig so that they built up their confidence and self-esteem and can feel “normal”.

I went to my hairdresser Jess, at Salon Boji and she washed, dried and straightened my hair. We talked about what style I would like and then she put it into four ponytails as my hair is really thick. On the count of three, she started to cut them off.

Once she was done, we put them all together and tied hair bands around them to keep them tidy. It is really important not to plait the hair and it makes it harder for the wig maker to use.

I felt really excited and a little bit worried that I would like a boy. Jess and her boss made me feel pretty special and kept telling new customers what I was doing.

Everyone was really impressed and told me “Good on you”, “ What a brave thing to do”,  “ What a great thing to do”. I felt really happy that so many people were supporting me as I was going through this process.

When I went to school my principal gave me a big hug and told me she was so proud of me. The teachers and office ladies all said “WOW”.

Some school friends told me they thought I was insane to do this, but most were very supportive.