Chopping off your locks - Donating your hair to Charity in Korea

It's the start of the cooler weather here in South Korea and I have been wanting to cut a fringe for the past few weeks. Cooler weather means much less maintenance when it comes to a fringe, or bangs as my American friends say. All girls with a fringe will sympathise with me when I say that that part of your hair does not tame easily, especially if you exercise a lot.

A few weeks ago I noticed a number of my students had cut their gorgeous, long hair in favor of a bob, and when I asked them why they had cut their hair, I was quite surprised at their answer. They had donated their hair to cancer charities. After asking a few more questions about it, I decided I wanted to do the same with my hair. In the past 20 years I have only had one 'short' hair cut and that was to below my shoulder, hardly short I would say, and so this was quite a big deal for me. Instead of thinking about it too much, I decided to make the change last week Tuesday and then walked into a salon here in my small town and had it all chopped off. Over 30 cm's of hair!

Here are a few snaps of my hair pre-cut (as in, the morning of the day I cut my hair). It was long, wavy and looked a bit endy. I was never the type of girl to spend hours curling or straightening my hair, and this is how it looked naturally after a quick once over with the hairdryer after a shower. 

There are a few regulations about donating hair, and I think they are the same all over the world. You hair has to be free from colour & other chemicals (although some institutes will accept certain coloured hair but most won't accept peroxide coloured hair) and a lot of Korean women have their hair permed, or chemically straightened. My hair hasn't been coloured in 15 years and is what is termed 'Virgin' hair and so was easy to donate.

A huge thank you to my friend Jenna of Komodoness for taking these photographs and being there if I needed a hand to hold!

It was a very quick and simple 'procedure'. My hair was hastily shoved into a ponytail dry. Scissors were then taken out, the pony snipped and then my hair styled (all while dry). I couldn't believe that the whole process took about 20 minutes! 

There are a few centres you can send you hair to here in South Korea, and I will post the address below for the place I am sending mine. I have been told it's as simple as placing your hair in a plastic bag, into an envelope with your name, email address and telephone number and then posting it. I will send mine off to the Korean Association for Children with Leukemia and Cancer (KACLC) this week:

Name of the Organisation: 한국백혈병소아암협회

Address in Seoul: 서울특별시 마포구 동교로17길 37

So, what do you think of my new 'do? I'd love to hear from you below! 

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