Locks of Love to the rescue

Three-year-old does her part
to help other children BY CHUCK TUCK | JOURNAL REPORTER Little three year old Emma Lund of Lake Stevens put on a brave face, and did what many adults admittedly are afraid to do, cut their hair.

Emma’s mother Brenda Lund says that Emma was born with a lot of hair as she showed a family photo of her daughter when she was an infant.

Emma’s hair will be donated to Locks of Love which uses the hair to make high quality prosthetics (wigs) for financially disadvantaged children under the age of 18.

Brenda says that she decided to do this because of a niece who had done the same thing in donating her hair to Locks of Love.
“She (Emma) doesn’t understand because she’s only three,” said Brenda.

“She just want’s to be a princess with long hair.”

Brenda says the process of donation is very easy; she went online to the Locks of Love website and read what was needed to be done.
The website she said showed pictures of people who have donated their hair as well as showing the recipients.

“I went online a couple of times for her to see, and once she saw the pictures of the kids holding their hair, she got it,” said Brenda.
When asking Emma if she knew why she was cutting her hair, she responded by saying “sick” for the sick children.

At first Emma was reluctant on having her long hair cut, but her mother did some coaxing with a lollipop which settled her down enough for Brenda to put her Emma’s hair into a ponytail.

With Emma’s eyes glued to the TV watching Nickelodeon and a lollipop in one hand, Brenda measured ten inches, which is the minimum needed for donations that would be used by Locks of Love for making the prosthetics.

Brenda held tight to the ponytail as she took several chomps to cut across the thick head of hair.

The look on her eyes as she cut her daughter’s hair was that of a surprise, and then she said, “I think I cut it a little crooked.”

Without a care in the world, Emma held her cut hair tied in a rubber band high in the air as she waved it around with joy and a big smile then danced on her tipi-toes.

Not concerned about the crooked cut, Brenda had confidence that she could fix that up in no time having cut the families hair for years.

Emma’s father Chris Lund however was not home from work yet; but Brenda said she knows her husband hated to see his little girl’s hair get cut.

“He usually brushes her hair all the time,” said Brenda.

She also has a son Robert who was out skateboarding because he didn’t mind if his little sister got a hair cut.

Locks of Love is a non profit organization that obtained their status in December of 1997 when it separated from its for-profit retailer.

Spearheaded by Modonna Coffman, a retired cardiac nurse, whose own four year old daughter developed alopecia and lost her hair; she used this as an inspiration and took on Locks of Love.

Alopecia and cancer constitute the two highest forms of disease that contribute to hair loss and of the recipient of the Locks of Love donations.

Alopecia is an auto-immune disorder that causes the hair follicles to shut down, and comes in varying degrees that affect more than 4.7 million people in the United States.

Currently there is no known cause or cure of the disease according to the Locks of Love information.

If you are interested in obtaining more information on how to donate your hair, you can go to www.locksoflove.org

blog comments powered by Disqus