Saturday is National Donate Your Hair Day, which is an annual day of encouraging women with long, healthy hair to donate an 8-inch ponytail to be made into a wig for women who are losing their hair from cancer treatments.
Pantene is taking hair donations for their program Pantene Beautiful Lengths, which helps the company make wigs to give to cancer patients for no cost.
"Getting a cancer diagnosis can be devastating, and for those women whose cancer treatments lead to hair loss the journey can seem even more daunting," Marilyn Brown, National Campaign Director, Canadian Cancer Society, told Broadway World. "The Pantene Beautiful Lengths program is instrumental in helping these women to feel strong, proud and gorgeous as they take on cancer."
Pantene has been doing this fundraiser annually for seven years. In that time the company has collected and donated over 70,000 ponytails, Broadway World reported.
Hair donations must be 3-inches-long, cannot be bleached, permanently coloured or chemically treated. Vegetable-based dyes, rinses and semi-permanent dyes are acceptable.
The National Cancer Institute estimates that there have been about 1.6 million new cancer patients diagnosed in 2014 alone. Since any cancer treatments have a side of hair loss this national awareness day is designed to give those cancer patients a wig full of healthy locks while fighting the disease.
For those who aren't up for donating their locks but still want to be part of National Donate Your Hair Day, you can donate to cancer research here to the American Cancer Society or here to Pantene Beautiful Lengths.
