I Gave Away a Part of Myself This Holiday Season

The Big Chop

It’s Friday as I write this post, but it will be the weekend when you read it.  I’m moving slowly, without the capacity to type and think with any sort of clarity.  This past week has been quite a month. The end of Daylight Savings always messes with my sleep, compounded by the chaos of the election aftermath.  Both conspired to throw my mind off-kilter.

Michigan weather has been a little irregular this year.  It’s mid-November and we’ve only had one night below freezing.  Normally, we see a few flakes of snow by now. Instead, we have cold November rain (cue the piano music).  The temperature is bouncing up and down like a rubber ball, taking the barometric pressure with it.  As you can imagine, my joints are contracting and expanding in sympathy, causing me to hobble around like a 100-year-old person.

Yesterday, I dragged my bag of aching bones to the salon for a long-awaited appointment.  When scheduled, it was intended to be a simple root color touchup and a quick trim.  Instead, I decided to do something wild and spontaneous.  After a full week of aches that caused me to feel like I was bathing a small dog perched on top of my head when I tried washing my waist-length hair in the shower, I decided to rehome the furry beast.

Yes, I asked the stylist to cut off my hair.

Before and after of my haircut. My stylist took off over a foot of length from my hair.

You can see how long my hair was before the big chop.  That’s six years of hair growth, minus the inches lost to trims over that time.  Before I moved to Nashville to wait for my heart transplant in 2018, I opted for a pixie cut.  I have learned from experience that it’s impossible to care for long hair from the confines of a hospital bed.

Before the pandemic, I wore it just past shoulder-length. Lockdown kept me from regular hair trims for a year, and my hair grew long. Now I’ve decided to start over with a perky chin-length bob.

My new hairdo - in process with root color and after styling.

What do you think?  I know that’s a dangerous question to ask people on the internet.

What happened to the hair I chopped off?  Initially, I believed that I couldn’t donate my hair to any charities to make wigs because it is color-treated.  However, I found one that would take colored hair so long as it wasn’t bleached or highlighted. 

Becca, the stylist, carefully parted my hair into sections and secured each one with a rubber band, then she chopped each bundle off with a quick snip of her scissors.  You can see how much hair she took off!  There are four bundles with over twelve inches.  That’s a lot of hair! 

My chopped locs of hair. I was surprised by how heavy they are.

Being such a huge supporter of organ donation, my hair donation is bittersweet.  I am not allowed to be an organ donor or donate blood because of my status as a transplant recipient, but I can still donate my hair.  Maybe some kids with cancer will get wigs to help them feel better about themselves as they go through treatment.  It’s not as lifesaving as organ or blood donation, but if it can make them feel better at the moment, maybe it can help them feel strong enough to survive the process. 

My challenge to you for this week, really the rest of the year.  What one thing can you do to help a stranger?  You don’t need to have a mop of hair hanging from your head.  You might be able to donate blood, or volunteer with an organization to help a family in need enjoy the holiday season.  Our local fire department has a giving tree so people can choose gifts for children in foster care from their Christmas wish list.  You might be able to find something like that in your area.

Please post in the comments below your suggestions of ways people can volunteer or donate to make this world a better place.  We can accomplish more if we work together!

As always, if you haven’t already registered to be an organ donor, you can do that here: Sign-up to be an organ donor.

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