Pantene Beautiful Lengths

As October comes to a close, I want to share a bit about an organization doing its part for cancer. Not specifically breast cancer, the focus of this month, but rather any woman with any cancer. The organization is Pantene Beautiful Lengths.

Source: Pantene

Pantene partnered with the American Cancer Society in 2008 to create Beautiful Lengths. Hair donations are collected and are turned into wigs and distributed for *free* to women undergoing cancer treatment. I recently made a 9" donation and it felt wonderful knowing that my long locks were going to help put a smile on another woman's face.

The requirements for donation (and reasons for restrictions) are as follows (taken from its Facebook page):

• Donated hair must be a minimum of 8 inches long (measure hair from just above the elastic band of the ponytail to the ends).

• Wavy/curly hair texture is fine—you may straighten hair to measure.
  

• Hair should be freshly washed and completely dry, without any styling products.

• Hair may be colored with vegetable dyes, rinses and semi-permanent dyes. It cannot be bleached, permanently colored or chemically treated.

• Hair may not be more than 5 percent gray.

• It takes at least six ponytails to make a Pantene Beautiful Lengths wig; in general, each ponytail comes from a different person and is a different color. Even though some hair colors may look similar, including gray hair, each is completely unique.

• For a realistic-looking wig that has consistent color throughout, donated ponytails must be processed and then dyed to the same shade. It is critical for each ponytail to absorb dyes at the same rate in order to create wigs of consistent, natural-looking color.

• Gray hair, as well as some chemically-treated or permanently-colored hair, does not absorb dye at the same rate as other types of hair. It is much harder to color and, once colored, fades more quickly.

• Most permanently-colored hair, once it is processed and re-colored, is too fragile and breakable under the rigorous processing required during the production of a Pantene Beautiful Lengths wig.

Provided your donation meets these conditions, you can rest easy knowing your hair is going to good use. I did a bit of research before shipping my hair off to Pantene and chose them because unlike Locks of Love, Pantene will not sell your hair to general wig manufacturers, nor does the American Cancer Society charge for the wigs they distribute. Did you know Locks of Love does? It charges based on a sliding scale based on total family income, which I suppose sounds reasonable in theory but, factor in the cost of treatment and income goes out the window. Though still considered a charitable organization after a review by the BBB, there has been much commotion over possible profits and limited wig distribution so, I felt better knowing that Pantene would use, and not profit from, my hair donation.

A sample wig. Source: Pantene

You can find out more about this charity and donating at its website.

Have you ever considered making a hair donation? Did you support any close-to-you organizations this month you'd like to share?

On a lighter note, Happy Halloween! x