Here’s something different to do with your hair: donate it!
April 27 is the first-ever National Donate Your Hair Day. Pantene, together with Seventeen magazine, are hosting this event in support of the Pantene Beautiful Lengths program. They’ll be encouraging people to cut and donate their hair so that they can create wigs for women with cancer who have lost their hair.
The Pantene Beautiful Lengths program has received more than 311,000 hair donations from men, women and children since its creation in 2006. Through the American Cancer Society they have made and distributed over 18,000 free, real-hair wigs for female cancer patients.
Last month, Pantene in New York contacted the brilliant Chantelle from Fat Mum Slim to create a photo a day list just about hair in the style of her incredibly successful month photo a day challenges. I’ve been playing along with her photo challenges on Instagram all year and together we put together the Hair Photo A Day project.
To raise awareness of National Donate Your Hair Day, Pantene would like you to take a photo using the daily prompt as inspiration and share it with the hashtag #hairphotoaday. You can post your photos on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, your blog or whichever platform you like.
Unlike the monthly photo a day challenges, this Hair Photo a Day Project starts on March 29 and here’s a rundown of the days:
March 29: Hair self portrait
March 30: Celeb hair you love
March 31: Hair flash back {a photo of you and your hair a while back}
April 1: Going out hair
April 2: Hair colour you adore
April 3: Your hair-do today
April 4: Best hair moment {the haircut/style you loved the most on you}
April 5: Your favourite hair accessory
April 6: Straight hair
April 7: Long hair {if you don’t have it, share a friend, celeb etc}
April 8: Dream hair {hair you wish you had}
April 9: Your mum’s hair {past or present}
April 10: Weekend hair
April 11: A stranger’s hair
April 12: A favourite short ‘do
April 13: Curly hair
April 14: Hair Swissshhh
April 15: Worst hair moment
April 16: Straight out of the shower hair
April 17: Your hair as a child
April 18: A friend’s hair
April 19: Hair product you used today
April 20: Bed head
April 21: Your hair at 8pm
April 22: Hair don’t {hair you really don’t like}
April 23: Flashback: Your hair as a teen
April 24: Where you did your hair today
April 25: Daily hair routine
April 26: Work / School hair
April 27: Donated hair
For more information about the program head to www.seventeen.com/donatehair or www.facebook.com/PanteneNA. If you’re considering the pixie cut, think about donating your hair to this cause.
Have you ever donated your hair? Will you be taking part in Hair Photo A Day?
Jade says
My hair is about 35 inches long (measured from hairline to the ends) and at my hips, basically like the ponytail posted in the mbfwa day 4 post (but not styled that splendidly haha). People talk to me all the time about how I should donate it, but I won’t. Not because I’m vain and selfish, but simply because I lost my faith in projects like these. Locks of Love sold most (if not all) of their hair for profit and none of that went to cancer patients. Also, come to think of it, I doubt a free wig is going to make a big difference in the scheme of things for a cancer patient, if it’s free at all (the wigs Locks for Love made available to their cancer patients had to be paid first by them.) Cancer research on the other hand…
I don’t want to bash any of you and I think it’s great you guys are putting in effort for others, but I’m not sure this cause is the right one. Read this: http://badhairday.typepad.com/bad_hair_day/2006/07/locks_of_love_i.html
Hair Romance says
Hi Jade,
You should never feel guilty about having beautiful long hair. You should enjoy it. But if you decide to go shorter, donating it can be a great way to celebrate your new style. I think the Locks of Love issue is a bit more complicated, but there are lots of organisations that you can donate too. I’m researching the ways you can donate and will post about it soon.
Christina
Jessie Hamblen says
I know I’m a few days late, but tomorrow I have an appointment to cut 10″ of hair off to donate. So excited!
Hair Romance says
That’s so amazing Jessie! It’s never too late x
Cindy L. says
I have been tinkering with the idea of donating my hair to Pantene for about a year when I first saw it on their CSR-website. The thing is – I like my hair long and I am saving it up for a special occasion (you all know what I mean ;-)), but afterwards I would gladly donate it. One problem is that they do not accept color (or grey hair, that I really don’t get) and I don’t know if I can stop coloring my hair for much longer. I decided not to color it and be *very*gentle with it since last year (including as good as no heat at all and ponytails only if absolutely necessary) but as my hair is a natural one-color-only-brown I get a little bored…
nicole b. says
I wish I could donate my hair… but it’s bleached, and NO ONE takes bleached hair. BOO! xo.
Hair Romance says
Same Nicole, my hair is too processed too.
Kris Schneider says
Hi! We love this idea! Would you mind if we re-posted this on our FB and blog?
Thanks!
Hair Romance says
Thank you and please share it! It’s for a great cause.
Stacy says
I have also donated to Pantene’s program, about 2.5 years ago. I had donated 12″ to Locks of Love two years previously. I’m happy with my hair right now, so I don’t think I will be donating this time. I really encourage women to do so, though. It is a great thing to be able to give of yourself. 🙂
Hair Romance says
Two donations is amazing Stacy! I think you prove to women who are nervous about doing cutting their hair off that you can have fabulous hair again afterwards.
Nadia says
I just donated my hair to Beautiful Lengths last month! I’m glad this is getting more publicity.
Hair Romance says
That’s great Nadia! I agree, such a great cause and I’m so pleased to be involved.
Sir Cadogen says
Donating hair is awesome! Both I and my current boyfriend have donated hair in the past.
I donated my hair after I graduated from High School. I thought it would be healthy to start college with new hair. Unfortunately, because I have had super-duper long hair for my entire life (mid-back at least) I didn’t know what to do with it shorter, so my first year of University was spent with fairly awkward hair. Oh well, it grew back.
Hair Romance says
I love that you and your boyfriend have donated hair! Short Cut Saturdays have lots of short hair tips if you decide to do it again x