Kindergarten Locks of Love

Well, I promised an exciting post, and now I'm realizing that perhaps hair cuts and donations are not as interesting to other people as they are to me. Oh well. Here it is anyway.

Some of you may know that last March, I had my class of children in Canada cut my hair to donate to Locks of Love. It was a great success, and so I thought I would do it again. My hair was not nearly as long this time, but I was feeling like it was time for a change, and it was plenty long enough to give quite a bit more than the required 10 inches, so I thought I'd just go for it. 

I believe that we need to be teaching children that they are agents of change in the world, and that part of the way we can do that is through supporting them in doing real, meaningful things. That is part of why I feel so good about working within an environment that involves children in sustainability and environmentalism. It is also a big part of the reason I have the children help me cut my hair instead of hacking it off myself at home. For several days before the cut, I showed the children many different pictures of children who had no hair, and had great discussions with them about why those children had no hair, and how hard it might be to have no hair. They were particularly impacted by a picture of a little girl who was dressed up as a fairy, and was a picture-perfect fairy princess, except for her bald head. I was impressed with their empathy and concern. I heard one of my kids explain to her grandmother, "This girl has no hair because she's sick, but it's okay because we're going to give her Emma's hair and then she'll be happy." I am so honoured to be able to participate in children's empowerment to help make the world a better place.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the process.

This is what my hair looked like most days up until Sunday.

This is what my hair looked like after I straightened it on Sunday afternoon. I decided that the whole process would go much better with my hair straight, because it makes it smooth and easy to manage, and actually allows the children to brush it, which they could never do when it's curly.

Front view. Straight and long. I always feel like I look like my sister, Patty, when my hair is straight, because when I was little I loved brushing her beautiful, naturally straight hair.

Okay, I know this picture looks very odd with the children so blurred out, but that is the best I can do, given my need to protect my children. They have all given permission for the pictures to be used in the newspaper, so they're not too worried, but it's better to be safe.

Anyway, this is right before the chopping happened. All the children had been brushing my hair and experimenting with how it felt and moved, and they were so thrilled at the idea that soon it would be used for a child who needed it.

As you can see, I used hair ties to divide the hair into 30 sections, one for each child. Each lock of hair had two hair ties in it - one above and one below where they could cut. This allowed them to be fairly independent in the actual cutting, and it also meant that when the locks were cut, they were neatly contained by the bottom hair tie, which is important for Locks of Love.

Also, notice the boy in the red shirt's hand - he is practicing scissor motions so that he will be ready to be an excellent barber when it's his turn. 

The children were both unbelievably excited and impressively responsible. I had no concerns at all that the children would cut at the wrong place, and they totally lived up to that trust. I find that with very few exceptions, children rise to the occasion when you trust them to do so.

This is all the locks of hair when we were done.

It might not look too impressive, but trust me, that is a lot of hair!

You may notice, but the resulting cut was not exactly even, but I trimmed it up a bit when I got home, with no catastrophic consequences.

After the first wash, I realized that it was definitely a lot shorter than I had anticipated! I think I was a bit duped by how much longer it seemed when it was straight, and put the hair ties in much higher than I should have. Oh well, more for Locks of Love!

Unfortunately, when I twisted it a bit and it went into my ringlets, it looked even shorter! I have not had hair this short since... I can't even tell you when, but I know that it's been at least 8 years. Yikes!

I am pretty much okay with it, except it does not all stay in a ponytail, which I find fairly unacceptable, as I like to throw it back out of my face. But it grows quickly, and in the meantime, I am seeing it as an interesting change of pace.

Morals of the story: Children are wonderful, empathic, and responsible when trusted with responsibility; Locks of Love is a fantastic company; and straight hair seems much longer than curly hair. The end.