It' s REALLY important to know that Locks of Love wigs and Pantene Great Lengths wigs are made entirely differently and for entirely different people. Locks of Love makes near-prosthetic wigs that kids with life-long hair loss can wear while swimming, dancing, playing tag, etc without fear of the humiliation of having their hair suddenly come off. Very different from cosmetic wigs that would be donated to, say, adult women going through chemotherapy hairloss. Locks of Love wigs are super expensive to make, and they usually don't go to kids whose hair loss is temporary--as most hair loss from chemotherapy for cancer is. Without Locks of Love, families have a choice of (a) surgical prosthetic hair implants (often more than $10,000), (b) a standard cosmetic wig (which can't be worn swimming or relied on in active play),or (c) permanent baldness. They have a "pay what you can" sliding scale program for the wigs--once in the program, a child will probably need to replace their wig as they grow, every 18 months or so, another thing that makes the program different and more expensive than cosmetic wig makers. Pantene Great lengths has a super-efficient and highly regarded donation program for COSMETIC wigs for adults. Both programs serve very important needs. Locks of Love is a non-profit organization, unlike Pantene, which has to support all of its activities through donations. Because their name has gotten so widespread, many people think they are a cancer patient program, although their website makes their mission very clear. They get more hair, and less money, than they can use--so they do sell unusable hair (even tighter reqs than pantene, because it's for kid hair) to wigmakers, and use the proceeds to fund operations. Because my hair and I are older, and I wanted to honor a friend with cancer, I decided to send LoL a check, and send my hair to Pantene.
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It' s REALLY important to know that Locks of Love wigs and Pantene Great Lengths wigs are made entirely differently and for entirely different people. Locks of Love makes near-prosthetic wigs that kids with life-long hair loss can wear while swimming, dancing, playing tag, etc without fear of the humiliation of having their hair suddenly come off. Very different from cosmetic wigs that would be donated to, say, adult women going through chemotherapy hairloss. Locks of Love wigs are super expensive to make, and they usually don't go to kids whose hair loss is temporary--as most hair loss from chemotherapy for cancer is. Without Locks of Love, families have a choice of (a) surgical prosthetic hair implants (often more than $10,000), (b) a standard cosmetic wig (which can't be worn swimming or relied on in active play),or (c) permanent baldness. They have a "pay what you can" sliding scale program for the wigs--once in the program, a child will probably need to replace their wig as they grow, every 18 months or so, another thing that makes the program different and more expensive than cosmetic wig makers. Pantene Great lengths has a super-efficient and highly regarded donation program for COSMETIC wigs for adults. Both programs serve very important needs. Locks of Love is a non-profit organization, unlike Pantene, which has to support all of its activities through donations. Because their name has gotten so widespread, many people think they are a cancer patient program, although their website makes their mission very clear. They get more hair, and less money, than they can use--so they do sell unusable hair (even tighter reqs than pantene, because it's for kid hair) to wigmakers, and use the proceeds to fund operations. Because my hair and I are older, and I wanted to honor a friend with cancer, I decided to send LoL a check, and send my hair to Pantene.
February 7, 2010 - 10:08amThis Comment
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