How To Donate Hair Canada

Hair donations on the rise during pandemic, giving sick kids a chance 'to experience a picayune bit more themselves'

Lydia Blanchard, community engagement director for the CHEO Foundation, says donated hair tin take a big affect on the lives of kids who are undergoing cancer treatment.

Stuck within without an open barber shop or pilus salon in sight, an increasing number of Canadians have decided to donate their long, flowing locks to charity.

Ontario organizations that accept donations of long hair to brand wigs for sick children say they've seen an uptick in the number of donors, growth that'due south at least partly attributed to the COVID-nineteen pandemic.

In Ottawa, children's hospital CHEO moved what was an annual one-24-hour interval charity event — during which participants raised money and cut their hair off — online due to COVID-nineteen, and at present accepts donations all yr circular.

The hospital has been getting envelopes of hair and donations on a weekly basis, and that'due south important given the profound effect a wig can have on a young person's life, said community appointment managing director Lydia Blanchard.

"It'south beyond but that 'I'one thousand fighting cancer' or 'I'grand battling this disease that is eating away at all of my healthy cells and that's why my hair's falling out,'" she said.

"It'southward more than that. It'due south now like, 'Putting on a wig, I tin constantly get to grade and experience like myself and not feel embarrassed.'"

'I can't manage it anymore'

The Canadian Cancer Society stopped accepting donations in 2018, leaving people in search of new places willing to take their long, beautiful, sometimes scraggly locks.

Wigs for Kids, a not-for-profit based in St. Catharines, Ont., that accepts hair from people beyond Canada, said it's seen donations ascent 30 to 35 per cent since the end of Ontario's get-go lockdown last spring.

The donation procedure includes a question about why people have decided to cut off their locks, said CJ Turavani, who works with the organization.

"Some of the responses are, 'Because I let information technology grow out during COVID," Turavani said. "It's too long. I can't manage it anymore, so I simply wanted to cut it off to donate.'"

CJ Turavani, who works with Wigs for Kids, a not-for-profit based in St. Catharines, Ont., says that many people seem to be cutting their hair at home. (CBC)

In Mississauga, Ont., the Child's Voice Foundation has seen a similar increase, which they also attribute to cooped-upward Canadians.

"People kind of started out with, 'Since COVID I oasis't had a haircut,' or 'Now that I'm on this journey with this long hair, I'll proceed to abound it. What exercise you need?'" said executive director Dee Esposito.

Having hair can mean the world

The demand is significant given that an out-of-pocket, high-quality wig can run a family thousands of dollars and isn't ever covered by insurance.

While each organization has unlike donation guidelines, hair typically needs to be virtually 30 centimetres long, make clean and preferably un-dyed.

According to Child'south Vocalism, some of the reasons a child needs a wig include chemotherapy, cranial radiation, alopecia, burns or trichotillomania — a disorder where a person pulls out their own hair.

"At least nosotros are here to help them to get their paradigm dorsum and give them their self-confidence and not let them feel horrible about themselves," said Amalia Ruggiero, the president of the board.