UCLA students and alumni rise to new 10-inch requirement to give hair for Locks of Love
Yilan Shi, a fourth-year molecular, cell and developmental biology student gets her hair cut for Locks of Love.
Correction: Because of a technical error, the original version of this caption was for the incorrect photo.
The longest run by any player during Sunday’s Super Bowl was 18 yards. On Thursday, the Locks of Love event at UCLA raised almost four times that amount.
Locks of Love is a public, non-profit organization that creates wigs for children who have lost their hair because of illnesses.
For the last four years, UCLA’s Alumni Scholars Club has brought the event to campus once a year to help in the collection.
This year the event was held at the James West Alumni Center, and Alumni Scholars Club members oversaw donations from more than 100 volunteers.
“Kids need the hair to live the lives they want to live,” said Marie Cross, a third-year psychology student and member of the Alumni Scholars Club.
This year, the club changed the requirement for donating hair for the event from five inches to 10 inches.
Overall, about 75 fewer donors turned out to this year’s event.
And although the larger requirement may have discouraged some donors, others compensated for the lower turnout by donating longer portions of their hair, Cross said.
“I think for a lot of people (giving hair) is bittersweet,” said Danielle Ross, a second-year business economics student and Alumni Scholars Club member. “At the end of the day, I think donors realize it’s a beneficial thing for the children receiving the hair and it’s worth it.”
But despite the decrease in donors, the atmosphere of the event remained upbeat, said Stacey Barnett, a second-year biology student and member of the Alumni Scholars Club.
Two of the largest donations of the day were made by a woman who donated 26 inches and another older woman who donated 32 inches.
The event was open to the public, and while the donations came mostly from UCLA alumni, students and staff, some students brought out their friends from other institutions.
“The flow of the crowds was pretty much constant ““ we were booked the whole day,” Barnett said. “People would come up to my station throughout the day and ask if they could just come donate their hair even though they weren’t signed up.”
Cross said one of the reasons for the enthusiasm was that people could help others with so little effort.
“People are excited to give hair away and help someone in such an easy way as getting a haircut,” Cross said.
