So, after two years without a hair cut, I chopped off my hair to a chin length bob. I only tend to have my hair cut once a year, and it grows pretty quickly, so this wasn’t too drastic a change for me. What was a change was that I then sent that hair off to the Little Princess Trust who make wigs for children and young people who have lost their hair. Today, I’ll be talking about why I did this and telling you about the process!
So first of all, why did I decide to do this?
After not cutting my hair for 2 years, it had grown by about 8 inches – that’s so much hair! I had seen that other people had donated their hair to make wigs, and I thought that I could do the same. Aside from avoiding the waste, what is also really important to me is that the hair is used to help something or someone, which is why I was keen to donate to the Little Princess Trust. They have made over 8,000 wigs using real hair and have also funded the research of paediatric cancer. So, I thought that they would be a really good place to donate to! If you think the same, click here for more information.
Secondly, hair is something that can create a lot of unnecessary waste, despite being biodegradable. 99% of hair cuttings collected from hairdressers are sent to landfill, where they can cause blockages. Hair is a really useful material because it repels water and absorbs oil, which makes it even more ridiculous that we simply throw it away! There are lots of things you can do with your discarded hair. I chose to donate my hair this time because it’s so long, but if you have smaller cuttings then there are other options, such as donating your hair to clean up oil spills. Hair can also be composted at home if you’ve just got a few little bits. Many salons do recycle their hair or donate it to be used for cleaning up oil, so have a chat with your hairdresser to see what their policy is if it’s something you’d like to do!
And how do you do it?
It’s a super easy process. Depending on where you donate your hair they may have different requirements for how you prepare your hair, how you package it etc. So this is what the process was for me, but you should always check!
So first of all, I took a few months to decide whether or not I was happy to cut my hair this short, because once it’s been chopped, there’s nothing you can do about it. Once I’d decided, I looked at the Little Princess Trust and what their process is.
For the actual cut, it’s pretty straight forward. You wash your hair, without using conditioner, then dry it. You then put the hair into ponytails (or one, as it was for me, because my hair is SUPER thin), and cut above the top band. You then put the hair into a cardboard or heavyweight envelope and post it off! The Little Princess Trust are also very clear about wanting people to reuse packaging and using recyclable materials to send off their hair. You then wait for a certificate, if you want one. That’s it! It’s a really easy process and it’s barely any more effort than just letting the hair fall to the floor.
I hope that this was interesting for you. This was a wonderful experience for me – I love my new hair, I limited some waste and I supported a charity that’s doing really great things. So all in all, a really good thing!
Waste Makes Waste 