Gilroy girl gets her hair cut, donates it to Locks of Love
When she walked through the door, 10-year-old Monica Marrazzo was scared. But she was a girl on a mission, and she wasn’t about to let fear stop her. She marched over to the beautician’s chair, sat down and had more than 10 inches of her brown hair cut off. Mission accomplished.
Monica donated her hair to Locks of Love, a nonprofit organization that uses donated hair to make wigs for children who have lost their hair due to chemotherapy or other medical conditions.
“I’m not sure how I heard about (Locks of Love), but I think I decided right away that I wanted to do it,” said Monica, a Gilroy resident. “I wanted to see what I looked like with short hair, and I wanted to give my hair to someone who needed it.”
Though Monica already had long hair when she made the decision to donate it to Locks of Love, it took her about a year and a half to grow it out to 21 1/2 inches, from root to tip, a length that reached the small of her back. Locks of Love needs all donated hair to be at least 10 inches long, but Monica didn’t want her left-over hair to be too short. So, she grew out her hair long enough so that, when cut, her remaining locks would barely brush the top of her shoulders.
“When she was cutting, I just kept thinking ‘This is really short,'” said Monica, a fifth-grader at El Roble Elementary School in Gilroy. “I was kind of scared that my hair was going bye-bye, but after it was cut, I thought it was really cool.”
Monica has known a couple of people who were affected by hair loss due to illness. Her aunt Karrie and one of Monica’s former teachers both lost their hair when they had chemotherapy, which influenced her decision to donate to Locks of Love.
“I didn’t think she’d be able to do it,” said Char Marrazzo, Monica’s mother. “There were some times when she really hated having such long hair. She wanted to cut it. It would get knotted, it was hard to take care of, it was hard to get all the soap out of it. I told her it was OK to change her mind and cut her hair, but she was determined. She wouldn’t even get it trimmed.”
Now that she’s participated in Locks of Love, Monica is going to grow her hair out again, as is her sister, Krista, 17, who is also growing her hair out.
“I always liked to put a lot of shampoo in my hair because it was so long, and I got in the shower and felt the back of my head, and was like, ‘Where’s my hair?'” Monica said. “I had a lot of shampoo and no hair! But the other cool thing was when I got in the hot tub and I didn’t get my hair wet because the water didn’t reach.”
Guidelines for Donated Hair for Locks of Love
– Hair must be a minimum of 10 inches, from tip to tip.
– No synthetic hair or hair from other wigs can be donated.
– Hair should be bundled in a ponytail or braid.
– Hair should be clean, dry, placed in a plastic bag and then into a padded envelope.
– Hair from men, women, young and old, of all colors and races is needed.
– Hair may be colored or permed, but not bleached or chemically damaged.
– Hair swept off the floor is not usable.
For more information, visit www.locksoflove.org.
