Day 19: Hair

Today was another fun day of covering multiple shifts while a coworker takes the week off. Being in the clinic on Tuesdays and Thursdays is like seeing a whole new clinic -- there are tons of kids I've never met just because I don't work on these days. It's fun, but also scary to try to follow the schedule without having any clue what's going on. Most of my coworker's were patient with me while I flubbed a few of my duties and was running behind on a few more. I only have one more day at the clinic before I head back to school! I've been saying a lot of goodbyes to all the kiddos and while it's sad I know it's for the better because me leaving is actually bringing me one step closer to becoming an actual therapist!

Many of you may know that I am currently growing out my hair for Pantene Beautiful Lengths -- a program that creates real-hair wigs for women who have lost their hair due to cancer and provides them for free. Our hair is part of our identities as women -- can you imagine losing yours on top of facing a life threatening medical crisis like cancer? Pantene Beautiful Lengths and Locks of Love both provide an amazing service to women and girls, and each organization has its pros and cons:

Locks of Love is probably the most well known of the two. This organization will accept a minimum of 10 inches of hair. Unlike Pantene, they will accept hair that has been colored. Also, they do collect shorter hair and sell it to offset the costs of wig production, so every hair counts! I have donated with them in the past and enjoyed the experience. Pantene is a more recent opportunity, with slightly different requirements. They only require a minimum of 8 inches of hair. They do not accept hair that has been colored (it makes matching the hair color to other hair from different sources in the same wig difficult). The website did not mention using or selling shorter or unusable hair to offset wig costs.

Overall, it's not who you donate with, it's just that you do it! I urge you to consider donating your 8-10 inches for cancer. As an added bonus, hairdressers will often cut your hair for free when you donate to these organizations! I am almost where I'd like to be before I cut it all off. Maybe a few more weeks? We will see.

The Miller household apparently does not have rulers... anywhere. So I made one using a ruled hole-punch. I would like my hair to still touch my shoulders after I cut it, so I still have a little ways to go!