By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
There was a time when Narelle McDonald would not have imagined ever cutting her long hair.
Those times have changed after Narelle donated half of it to cancer sufferers.
Narelle had 25 centimetres of her hair cut off at Color Me Happy Hair and Beauty salon in Pakenham and sent to the Look Good Feel Better initiative.
Look Good Feel Better provides free workshops for women, men and teenagers to help manage the appearance-related side-effects of cancer.
“It’s basically to help people with cancer when they’re losing their hair and they also show cancer sufferers how to apply make-up,” Narelle, from Pakenham, said.
“It helps perk them up.”
Narelle had been considering getting her hair cut previously but she didn’t want to just throw it away.
“I’ve always had long hair for most of my life and I wanted something that was easier to handle.
“I didn’t want to just throw out all the left-over hair and I’d heard snippets over the last year or so about being able to donate it,” Narelle said.
“I know you can sell it but I didn’t want to do that.
“If I’m going to cut that much hair, it should go to a good cause and make someone who has cancer feel better.”
Look Good Feel Better was the first cause Narelle discovered after researching hair donations.
After looking into it a bit further, Narelle said she was more than happy to cut off her locks and send them away for use in a great cause.
“I looked up where to donate your hair and this one (cause) came up,” she said.
“They had done a campaign for it last year and I’d seen on the morning shows that people could donate their hair.”
Narelle could certainly see herself donating more hair to Look Good Feel Better in the future but she will have to wait for it to grow back.
“It takes six ponytails to make a wig and as such a minimum of 20 centimetres of hair is required for each donation.
“I have had friends in the past with cancer but I just generally see people out there losing their hair and I know they wouldn’t feel too good,” Narelle said.
“It’s bad enough going through all the treatment, the least they can have is a wig that’s made from real hair.”
For more information regarding Look Good Feel Better, visit www.lgfb.org.au.
