Don't get me wrong. I've always donated to Toys for Tots, gave loose change to the Salvation Army, bought stupid crap at the kids' schools' fundraisers for their pet charities.... Blah. And I will or have done those things this year too.
But this year I did something a little different because the opportunity arose. I've recently opted to shear off the locks again and go from mid back length hair to a close cropped pixie hairdo in order to donate said hair to my fave charity, Locks of Love.
I think it's a fantastic way of "giving of oneself" and considering the fact that I'm broke, I can't donate money. I figured growing out my hair and getting it cut off can be my way of giving back. If not for anything else, I'm REALLY good at growing hair.
My reasons for hating the holidays isn't about the spirit of giving or anything like that. I am really just disappointed that this doesn't follow through to the rest of the year. It seems to me that we shouldn't have a "time of year" when people are kinder or more "brotherly" to one another and yet.... Well, looking around, I see shitty people doing shitty things to others all the time.
My reasons for Locks of Love to be a favorite charity of mine is simple really. I once went through a period of having a bald spot on the top of my head courtesy of my sister and a zip top. Of course, after said incident, and the resulting ripping of hair from my head with aforementioned zip top, I was told by dear sister that if I said anything to mom and dad, she would kill me in my sleep. At the time, I was 5 or 6 and she was 16 or so. (In looking back though, even if I HAD told my parents, somehow, they would have seen fit to punish me for it and say that it MUST have been my fault somehow anyway....) Whatever.
I had to endure tests of all sorts including blood work and skin scrapings, which resulted in a bigger bald patch on the top of my head.... Kids are cruel and mean, ESPECIALLY when they notice something different about another child and can exploit it somehow. Well, for months, until the hair started to grow back, I was known as "Baldie". It sucked being ostracized like that. Funny thing is, after the hair grew back, everything was back to the way it was. Like it never happened.... For everyone else around me. It left a rather large impression on me though.
There are children who suffer from hair loss and CAN'T say, "It'll grow back..." For whatever the cause (in the cases that Locks of Love deal with, Alopecia Areata, which is what I was tested for) I can't imagine or don't want to imagine the cruelty that these children must have to endure. It sickens me as well as saddens me. Locks of Love provides disadvantaged children (more girls than boys, as you can imagine) with vacuum fitted wigs so that they can "fit in and feel normal". They deal strictly with the charitable donations (both hair and money) to make and distribute these wigs to these kids....
There have been some controversial issues brought forth against Locks of Love saying that these funds have been misappropriated, but think about the amount of money it takes to go through the making of one wig. Sure, the wig costs about $1800, but it costs money to sort the hair (as ALL the hair donated cannot be used because it's not suitable or usable hair). Think about the overhead (advertising, an office where people are sorting through the mounds of mail they get, lawyers, "staff", although most of it is volunteer, it can't ALL be).... Blah, blah, blah.... And considering, they are the ones eating most or all of these costs.... Meh.... Whatever. Dig into ANY organization/ cause/ group/ religion/ whatever, and you're bound to find one or a whole lot more skeletons in the closet...
I'll frump on about the holidays being a crappy time of the year and stuff and I will definitely bitch and complain that this time of the year screws with the feng shui of the flow of my life, but I will not have anyone say that I am without a spirit of giving especially during the holiday season because of what they are. Although I see the whole "spirit of giving and brotherly love" as something people should have all the time, I think this year, I was just in time for Christmas for a nice haircut with a purpose.
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