Sixteen year old Natasha came into the pHd Malvern salon last week with what at first appeared to be a pretty normal request. Having always worn her hair long, she had decided it was time for a change.
It turned out, however, that this was not a normal haircut.
Two years ago Natasha’s sister, now eighteen, had been diagnosed with Thyroid cancer. Thankfully, she has fully recovered, but although she was lucky enough not to lose her hair, the experience got Natasha thinking about other young people who aren’t so fortunate, suffering hair loss as a result of cancer treatments and she wondered how she could help.
Natasha started to look for a charity that she could talk to when she read an article in the Malvern Gazette about someone who had donated their cut hair to a wig charity. She went on to discover the Little Princess Trust.
The Little Princess Trust provides real-hair wigs for free to girls and boys who lose their own hair as a result of cancer treatment. Whilst the NHS provides free synthetic wigs, real-hair wigs are much sought after, however, such wigs made specifically for children are hard to find and can cost up to £2000 per wig, significantly out of most people’s grasp.
Olympic Gold Medallist, Joanna Rowsell MBE, is the charities’ Ambassador. Joanna lost her hair as a ten year old so she knows first-hand what it’s like to experience this loss as a child and works hard to make the experience just a little bit easier for others. The charity is also supported by Jessie J who donated her hair after famously having her head shaved live on Friday 15th March 2013 for Comic Relief.
But it wasn’t Jessie J or Joanna that inspired Natasha, who had made her decision long before Jessie was having her head shaved, it was the idea that if she was going to get her hair cut off, she could put it to good use and someone else could benefit from it.
Still, life is rarely simple and the Little Princess Trust can only accept hair longer than 7”/17cm so once she’d made her decision Natasha still had to wait a whole year to grow her hair long enough…for her to get it cut.
At pHd Malvern we see many people who are undergoing cancer treatment or recently recovered, because our organic products are so kind to super sensitive skin.
Needless to say the Pure Hair at pHd team were delighted to help Natasha with this wonderful donation. In line with the charities’ requirements we plaited her beautiful hair before snipping it off, then got down to styling a neat and on-trend bob.
Meanwhile, back at home, having sent off her plait to be used in the making of wigs for children, Natasha is still getting used to running her hands through her hair and finding over half of it is no longer there and her friends think she’s extremely brave for having her long, long hair cut off.
At pHd Malvern we think that Natasha has gone from being inspired, to being an inspiration!
