<p>I have heard both good and bad things about LoL…any comments?</p>
<p>I have read that much of the hair is not used for the children, but is sold…anyone have more insight?</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>my D wants to make scraves and the like for an organization like locks of love, but not sure now, are there other organizations that might be better?</p>
<p>Never heard anything negative about Locks of Love. They do request that the hair be a certain length for donation (minimum 10 inches, as I remember), otherwise, they can’t, or won’t, use it for wigs. This might be why they may sell some that they get instead of using it for wigs. It also has to be cut a certain way – in one fell swoop in a ponytail. My daughter donated about 13 inches one year when she was much younger. I remember all these rules at the time, so I suspect some people who donate don’t follow those rules.</p>
<p>. In the fiscal year ended November 30, 2002, LoL provided 113 vacuum-fitted cranial prosthesis, repaired 22 pieces, and provided 39 synthetic hairpieces.</p>
<p>seems pretty small</p>
<p>it seems most hair is sold, not made into wigs at all…interesting</p>
<p>2002? Anything more recent.</p>
<p>Can’t find anything more recent than 2003, but it seems to confirm the OP’s concerns. I recently donated my hair to Pantene’s “Kindest Cut”/Beautiful Lengths campaign, where the hair is used for wigs for adult women with cancer.</p>
<p>CGM, thanks for providing those numbers. They are unexpectedly low. It’s also a bad sign if that information isn’t current and easy to find on their website.</p>
<p>cgm,
My S donated his hair yesterday to LoL. I am sorry I didn’t know about some of this information before. I don’t think I’ll tell him about this. He spent four years growing it out, and I hate to think that it would be used for a purpose he did not intend. He wanted to help someone, but not help someone turn a profit.</p>
<p>I agree with Mof3S. My D donated her hair in March, after having grown in three years, and she too would be so disappointed to think it wasn’t being used as expected. She was so proud to be doing something for someone else, and to think someone is making money on her hair? Disgraceful.</p>
<p>LoL also claim that they send a certificate and so forth to donors, which we never got. </p>
<p>I might think twice about this organization, now that I know this.</p>
<p>Yes, thanks for the info, all! I have heard the mantra to look into charities before donating cash to them to see how much is overhead vs actually goes to the “cause”, I should have thought to vett LoL in the same manner, it never occured to me. My younger daughter is going to donate soon, and we’ll have to do some research. Thanks for the Pantene reference cleveland, we’ll have to look into that one and other options as well.</p>
<p>I looked into this, too, and found some of the same information. Most adult hair is not usable for kids’ wigs, so it will be sold. I think their stance is that this helps pay toward making the wigs, but at that point I’d consider donating the money rather than hair. From what I can gather, about 10% of hair donations go toward the wigs.</p>
<p>They’ve always been upfront about not using adult hair for children’s wigs. And I can imagine that they can’t use all hair that’s donated to them --for one reason or another. So if they’re selling some of the hair for money, how bad is that? They still use the money for good. I’ve provided the link below to show what else they do, besides make wigs. </p>
<p>Also, who would be buying human hair from them? Presumably, that would be a another organization that makes wigs. Is that so bad? I believe Locks of Love only gives wigs to “disadvantaged” children, either free or on a sliding scale. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.locksoflove.org/[/url]”>http://www.locksoflove.org/</a></p>
<p>OK sorry to add water to the wet blanket going on here, but I’ve also heard reports of less-than-stellar LoL performance, and did some research. Ignoring the rants from people on various blogs, once they’ve uncovered the unpleasant facts about LoL, the most recent Give.org charts (covering through 2005) show that Locks of Love is now an almost-million-dollar-a-year organization, with nearly 40% of its income coming from “unusable material sales” as mentioned above.</p>
<p>Source of Funds<br>
Contributions 552,554
Unusable material sales 352,401
In-kind donations 45,327
Interest 10,279
Net unrealized loss on investments -2,339
Loss on leased equipment -17,325
Total Income $940,897</p>
<p>The other organization sometimes mentioned with a similar purpose is [Wigs</a> For Kids](<a href=“http://www.wigsforkids.org/]Wigs”>www.wigsforkids.org/). While they are a much smaller operation, and do encourage monetary donations (even allowing you to “sponsor” a child’s wig financially, a la Save The Children) I don’t see any “material” sales listed in their most recent snapshot on Give.org:</p>
<p>Source of Funds<br>
Foundation and trust support 152,000
Donations 92,201
Special events (net) 50,979
Donated services 24,462
Other income 2,119
Investment income 237
Total Income $321,998</p>
<p>Since Wigs for Kids does not have their finance reports professionally audited, however, they are listed as not meeting the Better Business Bureau’s [standards</a> for charity accountability](<a href=“http://www.give.org/standards/newcbbbstds.asp]standards”>www.give.org/standards/newcbbbstds.asp). Both organizations claim to operate on a sliding scale when they provide wigs to children.</p>
<p>There is one other organization I uncovered that has a similar purpose, but for adult wigs: the Pantene [Great</a> Length campaign](<a href=“http://www.pantene.com/en_US/beautifullengths/index_home.jsp]Great”>www.pantene.com/en_US/beautifullengths/index_home.jsp). I think garland may have the right idea here, money is probably the best contribution to these organizations. Unless you think your hair can be sold for massive amounts of money.</p>
<p>citygirlsmom: Why don’t you encourage your daughter to do something for your local hospital? That way, you and she both know where her efforts are going. Our local hospitals ask for volunteers to make and donate items, such as scarves, baby blankets, etc.</p>
<p>If it is sold because it is not right for kids, but that $$ is used to get wigs that are apporpriate (seems most kids want “fake” wigm not real hair), fine,</p>
<p>but to me it is deceptive to say oh your hair will be a wig on a child, and seems most are not cancer patients at all (fine, but again, not totally honest)</p>
<p>and from what else I have read, the hair is sold for cents on the dollar</p>
<p>I won’t say anything either to the girls that my Ds know that donated</p>
<p>I wil however, do some research to be sure I am “getting it”- seems the information is confused and lots of passion on both sides…</p>
<p>we are in fact contacting the NICU and child’s departments at our local hospital today- we would love to sew stuff for premies, or other patients, but want to be sure of all the specs and needs</p>
<p>citygirlsmom: I believe Locks of Love says on their site that they do not use the wigs for chemo patients (because that’s a short term loss of hair), but rather, for children who are suffering from permanent loss of hair. They give grants to support research into finding cures for those diseases that cause permanent hair loss as well. That seems to be an equally good use of their monies.</p>
<p>My son recently donated his beautiful hair to LoL. I had no knowledge of the information posted here, but I don’t have a problem with his donation. He wanted a haircut and decided to donate. If they sold his hair and used the money to help a child that would be fine with him. If someone stuck the money in their pocket I know he would be upset.</p>
<p>He did get the haircut free. Our local salon has 2 people who do LoL cuts and they donate the haircut. He got a great haircut so I tipped well.</p>
<p>My Ds friend was told that they will send her a picture of the child wearing the wig with the hair made from her donation…a child with cancer, which, from my research is just not true</p>
<p>I guess my issue is that deception is going on, for no reason…the cause is a good one, the few children that do get the hairpieces seem to be really happy with them, but it is NOT cancer patients, it is NOT really used to actually make the wigs, and the hair is sold on the cheap to who knows who, who make who knows how much $$…</p>
<p>Is locks of love making the best use of the donated hair and getting the most out of it? who knows, maybe, but with such no-forthrightness, and the letting pass the misinformation, I wonder</p>
<p>Not saying I am a big fan of LoL, but I think there is misinformation out there about what they can/cannot use and who it is for. The wigs are not for chemo/cancer patients. the wigs go to burn victims or those with medical problems (especially alopecia) that prevent hair from growing. I would imagine that LoL gets tons of hair they cannot use because the facts aren’t out there. Their site says this exactly and also states that shorter hair or gray hair will be sold to off set the costs of making the wigs. I don’t think LoL is perpetrating a deception, I think the general community is misinformed. When D donated her 15 inch pony tail several years ago, the salon told her it would go to kids with cancer. They clearly did not know. If it went to a kid with other medical problems great. If not, and a wig was made that someone else could use, fine too. I just wish the salon had known…we trusted their info.<br>
The Pantene program makes wigs for women who are fighting cancer.</p>
<p>See, I know when I donate to the foodbank, how it will be used, it will be sorted and distributed, and most is donated, and some is “sold” to non-profits who get donations to buy food, so the cycle goes- using vouchers, etc</p>
<p>I know when I dontate to GoodWill or the Salvation Army, it will be sold, and often bought for really cheap those that have needs, with the $$ going to programs</p>
<p>But at my Ds school, the facts of LoL were not accurate, and I am sure most girls still would have donated, but to mislead just seems wrong</p>
<p>So many websites for cancer, charities, etc have “misinformation” about where the hair fro LoL goes, you would think LoL would clarify, even newspaper articles aren’t factual…</p>
<p>LOL only produces 113 wigs in a year? Wow, that does seem pretty small. However, I was looking at the Wigs for Kids site, and it says it takes 20 to 30 ponytails to create one hairpiece, so maybe that could be an accurate number…</p>
<p>I’ve donated mine twice to LOL - I didn’t get a thank you note the first time, but the second time, they did send me a postcard. At the time, I didn’t know of any other place to donate hair, so it would have gone in the trash otherwise. I guess donating it, even if it is to a somewhat questionable charity, is better than nothing.</p>