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Hair Donation Guidelines

How to Donate Hair

Whether you are a seasoned professional cutting hair for hair donations, or an individual cutting a ponytail in your own home, please follow these simple steps to help make cutting and donating your hair easy and fun.

Donate Your Hair. Change a Child’s Life.

 

Hair provides the materials. Financial support covers the skilled work and care that make each wig possible.

 

Since 1981, Wigs For Kids has been providing children facing medical hair loss with made-to-order hairpieces, at no cost to the families. This is possible through the generosity of hair and financial donors.

While hair donations supply the materials needed to create a wig, financial support covers the production costs associated with its creation.

Wigs For Kids commits to supporting each child for every year of their childhood hair loss journey, with a hairpiece, maintenance products, and support services.

The cost of this support is close to $2,600 per child each year. For some kids, hair loss is only temporary, but for the majority of the kids we serve, hair loss will persist throughout their lives.

Your donation today supports a child currently waiting for a wig.

  • $25 → Covers shipment of a measurement kit to a child in our program
  • $100 → Supports wig care and maintenance
  • $500 → Helps fund wig construction

Make An Impact Today.

 

Measuring and Cutting Your Hair Donation

Hair donations must be a minimum of 12 inches (but 14 inches or more is STRONGLY preferred)

Follow these measuring tips:

    • Grow ponytails 14+ inches to have the most impact on a child in need.
    • Pull curly hair straight for a more accurate measurement.
    • Start the measuring tape at the start of the ponytail.
    • Stop measuring where the ponytail starts to thin due to layers or split ends.

Hair donations must be clean and stored/packaged completely dry.

    • Wet hair will mold in shipping and will be thrown away.

Hair donations cannot be permed, color-treated, or highlighted.

    • Temporary coloring or highlights that wash out are acceptable but must be completely washed out before cutting. Gray hair is accepted.

Tie hair into at least four sections (six are even better) around the head for a more generous donation.

    • Hair that is pulled into one ponytail or braid results in a loss of up to four inches of hair. To section ponytails:
      • Make a center part
      • Starting from this center part, part the hair over the top of each ear. This will create four sections of hair

To create four ponytails:

    • Tie the hair in front of each ear into ponytails, and then tie the hair behind each ear into ponytails.
    • Make sure each ponytail or braid is tightly secured. Hair that is loosely wrapped tends to become loose during shipping, making it unusable.
    • PLEASE be sure hair is tight and secured with several rubber bands 2-3 inches apart.

Cut hair above the rubber band and seal it securely.

  • Seal all dry ponytails in a Ziploc bag.

Place Ziploc bag along with Hair Donation form and barcode/ID number in a sealed envelope addressed to:

Wigs For Kids — Hair Donations
24231 Center Ridge Road
Westlake, Ohio 44145

Get Your Donation Barcode

Are you ready to donate your hair?

Complete the online Hair Donation Form below to receive your barcode/ID number.

If you use our online form and include a printout of your barcode with the donation, you can expect a thank you within 60 days of Wigs For Kids receiving your ponytail(s).

If you fill out a paper form without a barcode, you can expect a thank you within 4–6 months of Wigs For Kids receiving your hair. We truly appreciate your hair donation and will do our best to send a thank you as quickly as we can. Thank you for your patience and your donation!

Please consider adding a financial donation to help Wigs For Kids with the cost of hair processing, services, and hair replacements (which average $2,600 yearly per child). Any amount helps us get closer to helping a child. You can make an impact today by clicking the image below.

Graphic from Wigs For Kids featuring a testimonial quote in white text on a teal background with decorative sparkles. The quote reads: “Without my hair I feel confident, but the wig just helps me feel more confident. I enjoy brushing my hair, styling my hair, and the feeling of my hair blowing in the wind.” Below the quote is the Wigs For Kids logo. On the right side is a portrait of a young child with long, straight hair wearing a dark green collared shirt. The quote is attributed to Eleni, age 10.

 

 

Start Your Hair Donation Form

Hair Donation Form

Note: PACKAGES NOT CONTAINING A BARCODE/ID NUMBER (OR PAPER HAIR DONATION FORM) ARE UNDERSTOOD TO BE ANONYMOUS DONATIONS.

About Wigs For Kids

Wigs For Kids is a nonprofit organization that helps children experiencing hair loss stemming from chemotherapy, radiation therapy, alopecia, trichotillomania, burns, and other medical causes. Stylists and regular people just like you work together to give recipients the self-esteem and self-image they deserve.


24231 Center Ridge Road Westlake, OH 44145

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