Friday, November 8, 2013

How My Hair Will Save The Planet

For the past couple of years, I had been growing out my hair. I was doing so, so that I could donate it to children suffering from cancer and other health issues where they would lose their hair. I had almost a foot ready to be cut. I went into my salon with a ziplock freezer bag and said "cut it". When my stylist asked where I was sending my hair, I told her Locks of Love. At the mention of the name, another stylist came running over. "No, no, no. You don't want to send them your hair!" I was confused by this and asked him to elaborate. He began to tell me about all of the controversy that surrounds this company. I never knew! He suggested that I send my hair to Pantene. I said, "thank you for your input, but now I will have to go home and reseach a bit more before I send my hair to anyone". A quick Google search and I found much of what he was talking about regarding Locks of Love. (I'll leave that for you to do yourself). I looked into Pantene and found that they only make their wigs for woman suffering from breast cancer, not children, not men, and not for any other medical issues. Additionally, after giving it some more thought, many of their products contain the very same ingredients that are known cancer causing agents. It just didn't seem like the right choice either. So who was I going to send my hair to? I had been growing it out for so long, and I really wanted to do good with it. Back to Google I went......

After much research, I found a company called Matter of Trust. This is a great company, with a major mission, saving the planet! They turn hair and old fleece into booms that are used to clean up oil spills. How cool is that? I contacted them immediately. Since I am just one person, and only had a "small" amount of hair, they asked that I mail it to them to be used for educational purposes. My hair will be used in a classroom setting to teach others how to make their oil busting booms. 

And this is how my hair will save the planet! Before you donate to a company, no matter what it is that you are donating, please do your research. Do not donate blindly, and NEVER give to a company with zero transperancy. 

Please enjoy the pictures below of my hair cut experience. :)