Two years ago, after a haircut that could have seen me donate 10 inches of hair to Locks of Love in honour of my girlfriends that were diagnosed with Breast Cancer, I decided that I would continue to grow out my hair with minimal trims until I had enough to donate.
This summer as my hair was long and flowy I knew that I had reached the desired length. I really enjoyed my long hair this year, but I was starting to feel like I needed a bit of style back. With Fall approaching, I knew it was time to just do it. Even though I intended to cut my hair off it is still a hard thing to do when you have been living with it for two years.
I tried to get an appointment for my hair at two of my usual salons but they were both booked up. Recently on Twitter, I was hearing a lot about a salon down on Dalhousie called Texture. Since I knew one of the ladies that had her hair done and loved it, I figured it was a pretty safe place to go for my cut.
In addition one on my photographer colleagues, Vanessa Dewson, offered to come down and capture my hair cut for me. So not only did I cut my hair, but I have fabulous photos of the whole process. Since I am the one behind the lens most of the time, it was a bit nerve wracking for me to be in front. I know why I am behind the camera most of the time, but I sucked it up for this special day.
Meet Chelsea, Chelsea was my stylist. We had some great conversation where we shared stories of tattoos and no tattoos, thresholds of pain and awesome movies that actually mean something. Chelsea was fabulous and funky and I really enjoyed sharing this time with her.
And then there was the cutting. Chelsea asked me my story, why I was donating my hair. Then she combed and measured my hair. I talked about the style I was hoping to get back and how I wouldn’t be doing this again soon, but it was a fun thing to do. We divided my hair into two braids to get as much as we could into the donation and she was off with her scissors. I didn’t shed a tear, which was amazing. Others in the salon wanted to watch the cut and what was going on which was really touching.
My braids measure 12 inches, which means I was able to donate a good two inches more than I had originally anticipated. I know that my small donation will only be able to make a third, if even, of a wig. But, if I can share my hair with someone so that they can feel great at a time when they might feel at their worst, then my job is done. I know that both of my girlfriends looked fabulous in their wigs and it gave them some freedom to feel normal at a time when they felt anything but. It is for them that I did this, it is both of them that inspired me and continue to inspire me.
With this under my belt, it is time once again to get back to training. I will be once again running the CIBC run for the Cure on October 3rd. But, this year I will be running with a team, and in this team are my two girlfriends who inspired me to run in the first place. If you would like to sponsor me and my run please do. My hope is that one day we won’t need to run, we won’t need to donate hair, we won’t need to do all these things because there will be a Cure.
A huge thank you to Vanessa for taking such fabulous photos. She did an awesome job and I am so thankful that she captured this day for me.
