How to Donate Hair to the Little Princess Trust

Hi, I’m Amélie. I’m 8 years old and I want to tell you how to donate hair to the Little Princess Trust. 

A few weeks ago, I decided I was going to cut my hair. My mum’s friend Donna did a hair donation to the Little Princess Trust not long ago and I knew I wanted to it too to when I had my hair cut. 

The Little Princess Trust is a registered charity that gives real hair wigs to children and young people (24 years and less), who have lost their hair because of cancer treatment or other medical problems.

I’ve been growing my hair since I was 5. I have to have long hair for ballet buns but I decided to cut it up to my shoulders so I can give lots of hair for a real hair wig. 

Just before school ended, my mum saw my teacher Year 2. She’ll be my little sister’s teacher next year. She’s so lucky! Mrs G. was always my favourite teacher because she was kind. She even volunteered to start a choir after school and I love her so much. Sometimes, she told us about her three sons. Mrs G. told mum that one of her 17-year-old twins got Leukaemia not long ago. It made me think a lot about cancer and what I could do. I’m only 8 though and I’m not too sure how I can help. I just wanted to make sure other people who are thinking about cutting their hair know about The Little Princess Trust so maybe they can donate it too. With my mum we tried to answer all the questions we could think of.

What kind of hair can you donate?

– Donated hair has to be clean and dry. 

– Make sure that the hair you send has no split ends. 

– The Little Princess Trust accept hair that’s straight, curly hair, hair with a bit of grey in and even dyed hair (but no bright colours like pink or blue). You can also donate bleached hair but it has to be in excellent condition. 

– You can even send a ponytail that was cut less than 5 years ago. 

Is there any type of hair you can’t donate?

– The minimum hair length to donate is 7 inches (17cm), so anything shorter won’t be used for a wig.

– Grey hair (you can have some grey in your hair, but hair that’s just grey can’t be used)

– Hair that’s been dyed with henna

– Hair that’s not a natural colour (blue, green, purple etc.)

– Dreadlocks

– Hair extensions

– Really tightly curled hair

How long does your hair have to be to donate? 

I just wanted to cut hair off for charity and I didn’t know there was a minimum length to donate hair but my mum said we should look into it. The minimum length for hair donations is 7 inches long (17cm). You can’t donate 6 inches of hair, so if you’re not sure your hair is long enough to donate, just grow it for a little bit longer. If you can, send locks that are 16 inches long (41cm) or more. 

How to donate hair to the Little Princess Trust:

Donating hair to The Little Princess Trust is really easy. You have to wash and dry your hair before cutting it. 

Don’t use any products or even conditioner in your hair. 

Put your hair into ponytails (we did plaits to make my fine hair more secure). 

Put a hair band at both ends and in the middle as well. 

Cut above the top band.

Put the hair in a cardboard envelope and send it with the Hair Donation Slip.

Where to donate hair?

You don’t have to look for salons that donate hair to have your haircut. You can even do it at home with your parents. My mum isn’t good at cutting hair so I washed and dried my hair then our hairdresser Rachel came and she cut my hair. We made 5 little plaits and put hair bands at the top and bottom of the plaits (my mum thought my hair was too fine for ponytails). After she cut the little plaits, we put them in an envelope and mum filled in the hair donation form. 

Here’s the address where you need to send your hair:

The Little Princess Trust
Broadway House
32-35 Broad St
Hereford
HR4 9AR
UK

How will I know that the charity received my hair safely?

If you’ve given an email address on the hair donation slip, the charity will email you a Little Princess Trust Hair Donation Certificate to thank you for your donation. 

What do The Little Princess Trust do with my hair when they get it?

First, they will check that your donation followed all the guidelines. Then they will send it to their wig manufacturer in China. 

Will my hair make a whole wig? 

It normally takes about 10 hair donations to make just one real hair wig! 

When the wig using my hair is made and given to someone, can I get a photo of them with the wig?

After the hair has been received by The Little Princess Trust, it’s not tracked so they wouldn’t know which wig it was used for. They also wouldn’t share details of the children and young people that they help. It’s important to respect their privacy.

This is why  I’m raising money as well as donating my hair:

The charity give the wigs for free but it’s really expensive to make each wig (more than £500!) so I decided to cut my hair off for charity and raise some money. I asked my mum if I could raise money and she made a JustGiving page for me. So far, I’ve raised £231.97. Will you help me raise even more money? We’ll keep the fundraising page open until Sunday (18th August) and then we’ll give it all to the charity. 

Have you got any other questions about donating hair to The Little Princess Trust?