MIA: "My daughter cut her hair off and made me proud"

Up until a few weeks ago, my 8 year old daughter and I were having a hair race. This was not a very interesting race for spectators because it simply involved seeing which of us could grow our hair  the longest.

It lasted months. Maybe a year.

She won.

Look, she was always going to win because she has a longer concentration span than me and I was always going to get bored and frustrated with the process of growing my hair and go down in a blaze of scissors.

And that’s exactly what happened.  Last month I did the big chop and got myself a Lob (long bob). And I lost the hair race.

I was gracious in defeat, mostly because I was chuffed with my new haircut and because I have always taken a strange sort of posessive pride over my daughter’s long hair and I didn’t want her to cut it. I have always loved it long.

I’m not sure if it’s a nostalgia thing – I had the same hair at the same age – or whether I’ve just lived my long hair dreams through my daughter but I loved her long hair as though it was my own.

Every time my husband suggested she might need a haircut I jumped in with bogus reasons why she shouldn’t cut it off. Mostly they involved something lame like "But I LOVE IT LONG." She never needed much convincing.

“Mum will win the hair race if you cut it,” pointed out my 5 year old son gravely. My daughter's hair stayed long.

But last month after I cut my hair and she claimed victory, two things happened.

While looking through my Facebook feed one night, I saw a photo of a friend who had cut off her long hair and donated her ponytail to the Beautiful Lengths campaign that uses donated hair to make real-hair wigs for cancer patients who have lost their own hair due to chemotherapy. It takes about 12 ponytails to make each wig. That's a lot of hair.

My daughter and I talked about it. We talked about the people we knew who had cancer and the people we knew who were cancer survivors. We talked about what it would feel like to lose all your hair from cancer treatment. I put no pressure on her. The conversation was initiated by her.

And the seeds were sewn.

I don't want to paint her as some kind of heroic, selfless child, though. It was also winter and long wet tangled hair had become a burden. She was sick of the knots, sick of having to brush it out, sick of having to tie it up for school.

So one day she came to me and said, “Mum, I think I’m ready for a Lob. And I want to do that thing where you donate your hair to cancer patients.”

Oh, proud moment.

Being my daughter and also female, once the decision had been made, she wanted to cut her hair straight away. I knew Pantene was a sponsor of the Beautiful Lengths program so I Googled the details and found all the info I needed right here. Including some great before/after shots that we've put in a gallery below.

I was mildly surprised at how DIY it all was - you don’t have to go to a special salon and you don’t need to do anything more complicated that putting it in a snaplock bag and posting it to Pantene.

Really? In the MAIL?

And then I reminded myself that this wasn’t organ donation. It wasn't even blood. It was hair.

Worthy, yes.  Life-and-death, not so much.

So I emailed my hairdresser Jaye who owns the Edwards & Co salon and said "let's do this".

He jumped on board, offered the services of one of his hairdressers, Liam, and a few days later we were in the chair.

 Here’s how it all went down:

A couple of weeks later and this haircut is a big hit. Coco is stoked with her haircut "We went past a Lob and it's actually a bob but I'm OK with that".  There have been moments of "I miss my hair" but they never last long and she doesn't regret it. On a purely selfish note, I've saved a lot of time now that I no longer have to do her hair each day. And a change? It's as good as a haircut. Same same. I just wish more people knew about this terrific, worthwhile program. Think about all that glorious, usable hair that ends up being swept into the bin.

If you or anyone you know is thinking of getting a chop, please send them this post and  you can find all the answers to your questions here. Pantene even has party packs to send out if you're doing it as a group.

For some more inspiration, here are some people who've already made the chop (from the Beautiful Lengths website)

We think you'd love...
The hair style we've all forgotten
Bye bye blonde hair - The Chop
Paula Joye's long bob haircut

Would you ever consider donating your hair to Beautiful Lengths? Tell us your story!