What Happens When You Donate Your Hair

#1 Wigs For Kids

According to Wigs for Kids, there are some guidelines to follow if you want to donate your locks to help a child who needs a special wig made. The organization is nonprofit and makes wigs and hairpieces for financially disadvantaged children under age 21 suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis, unlike other charity's, like Locks Of Love, which will not make a wig for a cancer patient undergoing treatment because they believe the hair will grow back.

#2 The Length And Color Matter

The hair must be at least ten inches in length to start with, and uncolored or treated, and of course, no grey. They won't accept color treated or permed hair because of the chemicals. Check the organization you choose before chopping off your beautiful hair. Sometimes the color of your hair may not be needed at the time you are ready to donate.

#3 Strict Guidelines

Once you've chopped off a few ponytails of hair, you must either bag it in a plastic sealed Ziploc bag or wrap it in tissue paper. Make sure your hair is clean and dry before you send it. (Apparently, wet hair will gather mold and what kind of monster gives a child their moldy hair?) This, according to a Wigs For Kids representative, is the main reason why a donation is rejected or tossed away.

#4 It Gets Sorted Several Times

Wigs For Kids is located in Ohio, and at their manufacturing facility, they receive the packages of hair and make it into beautiful wigs for the children. They begin by first sorting the daily batch of new hair into bins by color, texture, length, and quality. All unusable hair is shipped out to be sold to wig manufacturers worldwide, where they make a lot of money with the hair they were given free. To be fair, other hair donation charities such as Locks Of Love and Great Lengths also sell excess hair, and Locks Of Love only uses 20% of the hair they receive on children's wigs.

#5 Flattened & Treated

After they find the suitable hair required to put together a full wig, the hair is flattened, treated with chemicals to preserve it, and then clipped to the same length. It is recommended that you send in 12-inch ponytails just to be sure there is enough hair to work with after it gets processed and sorted.

#6 Combed And Matched

The clump of hair is then combed thoroughly and remeasured for exact length and any short hair after combing is then discarded. The hair is matched with other processed clumps and gathered into ponytails. It takes between 10 and 15 of these banded tails to create a small child's wig and about 18 for a teenagers wig.

#7 Sewn Together And Blended

The ponytails are then sewn together on a machine and retreated in a chemical bath. They are then hand sewn one a time into a fitted cap that is custom made for each child receiving a hairpiece from the charity. The hair colors are all blended to match and create a custom wig that will specifically fit the recipient.

#8 Almost Two Weeks To Hand Sew And Complete

Eventually, the wig is completed. It takes 15-20 days to complete each wig after the hair is received at the Ohio organization. Once the finished product is inspected for quality it is given, free of charge, to the child who had it made to order. Wigs For Kids does not charge for their wigs, unlike Locks Of Love, which sells their pieces at a sliding scale, to families based on income levels.

#9 Locks Of Love Sells Unused Hair For A Big Profit

Last year, Locks of Love received enough donated hair to make 10,000 hair pieces. (At 10 ponytails per hair piece, that adds up to at least 100,000 donations that, in theory, were acceptable for wig making.) However, the charity provided only 174 hair pieces to children. The majority of the remaining 98,000+ ponytails that are not used each year are sold, on average, to a tune of just over $3 per ponytail. Any individual can sell their hair online or to wig makers, and the going price is $5-6 for each ponytail, so they are selling at a reduced rate but still making a huge profit from your hair.

#10 Your 'Donation' Could Be Hurting Some Poor Women

The majority of commercially-used human hair comes from South Asia, where the economies of some small, rural villages are buoyed by the income from the sale of human hair. However, the sale by charity organizations that are supposed to be using it for wigs needed by children, at a reduced price in the market, is causing the price to drop. This is having a drastic effect on the market, which is hurting many poorer women in areas of developing countries who rely on the sale of their hair to bring money into their communities or provide for their families. All of the charities that ask for human hair sell the unused or unwanted hair, but of the three major organizations, Wigs For Kids keeps and uses more than the others. Locks Of Love has maintained that they receive too much hair to use.

#11 When It Works It's Beautiful

So... the wig is finished and made to order. That means it can now be presented to the recipient, like Bridget, who is suffering from alopecia, an autoimmune disease that causes hair loss. Her hair has all fallen out and she has been wearing mail order wigs for a few years and been bullied by other children because she had refused to wear the fake looking hair pieces. She is thrilled to be presented with a real hair piece to wear.

#12 Wigs For Kids Does The Best For Needy Children

Wigs for Kids is a nonprofit founded in 1981 which, as the name would imply, aims to help children who are suffering from hair loss by hooking them up with beautiful wigs. Of the top three organizations, they are the best by far when it comes to actually creating usable wigs for excited little children. If you are ever considering 'donating' your hair to help a cancer patient or needy child, you may be better off sending them a check instead unless you do your homework. Your best bet if you feel so inclined to donate is Wigs For Kids. They came through for little Bridget.

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