Anyone who knows me knows that I have big hair. I belong back in the '80s, when poofy, curly hair was all the rage. The problem is that I don’t live in the '80s, so what’s a girl to do about this thick curly mane?

My solution: donating my hair. This may seem counter-intuitive, to cut your hair shorter to make it less crazy. Well, not exactly. When I donate my hair, I donate multiple ponytails of the same length in order to give more to the charity I am helping. Then I thin it out, but only after I have given it away. My thick, long locks can be donated to help serve a purpose, whether it is helping cancer patients or helping people with alopecia. Everyone deserves to have beautiful hair!

The first time I ever donated my hair—what an experience! I walk into the salon with an entourage, with my mother and grandmother. We tell the hairdresser working there that I want to donate my hair to Locks of Love—a charity that makes wigs for people under 21 with diseases where they lose their hair (mostly alopecia). The hairdresser gathered my hair into one large ponytail (first mistake) and measured it to be the right length. She chopped it off (way harder than it looks with a large amount of hair), and I was awed of what just came off my head. I felt lighter (actually physically lighter) but I also felt lighter knowing I was helping people. Granted, I was only in the second grade, so what did I know about charity? But I did know that I wanted to help people.

Once my hair was trimmed up (short I may add), I got a cute little zig-zag part (so me), and I went home, toting my hair in a baggie. Of course I have tons of pictures of me with my ponytail—my favorite is of me holding the ponytail up to my grandfather’s head. We packaged up my hair and sent it off. It was done! But I hated short hair. Again, that’s the problem with my thick curly hair; it won’t sit right in a bob. Yet, I painfully rocked the style and rocked the awkward “I’m growing my hair out” length and eventually got back to my long locks again.

In middle school, I had more of an idea of why I donated my hair, so I felt like I should do it again! I measured my hair many times to avoid the bob (thank God) and researched on my own more about different places that use human hair for wigs. I found another option, the Pantene Beautiful Lengths program that makes wigs for cancer patients. So my good friend and I went back to that same salon and both got out hair chopped off. This time, I knew to use multiple ponytails to make it easier to cut! We both were so happy to help others out.

Just a few years later, I was itching to cut my hair again. Donating my hair had become an addiction. The cycle of cutting it, letting it grow, impatiently waiting for it to grow longer to finally get that right length.

Of course I didn’t stop there; I donated again in high school and in college. For me, the last donation was the hardest; I have to maintain a bun for school, so I had to ensure that my hair would be long enough to finesse it into a bun. Each time, it gets easier to send, I now accept that hair is temporary, and helping people is more important to me than having “mermaid hair.”

The longer I do it, the more people I see donating their hair too. I have even seen my friends donate their hair and we bonded futher over our shared passion. We are making a difference, I know it! Every time that hair comes off, I hope that some person out there is enjoying it as much as I did. One of my friends shared this video on why she donated her hair and why everyone should do it at least once. I also believe everyone should try it at least once, to experience the joy that it brings you (selfish reasons) and so that someone else can experience the joy of a wig like that little girl in the video. That little girl is why I do it, and she is why I’ll keep doing it until there is no hair left on my head to give.