Can someone tell me what's wrong witrh locks of love? - Page 3

[eepster]

Originally Posted by Mamid

Being a long hair myself, I don't know how many times people have told me I need to "update my look" or some other variant and that I should "donate my hair to the poor cancer kids." <= I kid you not! That's what I've been told!

They don't use real hair wigs for kids with cancer, only alopicia. It take too long to make the wigs for it to get there before their own hair starts growing back they give kids with cancer synthetic wigs.


http://www.locksoflove.org/faq.php

Q: What aged children do you help?
A: Children under 6 years receive synthetic hairpieces because this age group of children experiences rapid growth in the size of their head. Children aged 6-18 with long-term hair loss receive custom, vacuum-fit hair prosthetics. Children suffering from short-term hair loss are given synthetic hairpieces.

[stormborn]

[QUOTE=KLK7;3381358]This is exactly how I feel. I have long thick hair to the top of my rear and whenever I wear it down, I always (I mean always) get a comment along the lines of "When are you going to donate it?"
The implication that I am a selfish person is offensive.
[QUOTE]

: Yeah I get asked that alot. My new response is "wow you look healthy! When are you gonna donate a kidney?" The looks are priceless.

[HerthElde]

The place I used to get my hair cut (we've since moved) donated the hair they swept up to help make some sort of mats for mopping up oil spills.

[kandkrose]

oh that's so unfortunate! breaks my heart wha. i was going to grow out my hair to donate to LOL... MAN - that STINKS. it was on my 101 goals list too... looks like donating a pretty new hat will take its place

[EdnaMarie]

d'oh...

[PYJam]

Originally Posted by eepster

They don't use real hair wigs for kids with cancer, only alopicia. It take too long to make the wigs for it to get there before their own hair starts growing back they give kids with cancer synthetic wigs.

http://www.locksoflove.org/faq.php

Perhaps these synthetic hairpieces are part of what the extra hair is sold to cover?

I love my hair long, but since I was about to get it cut for other reasons I was going to send the hair to LoL. DH has an Ebay account- maybe I'll sell this and an older ponytail ( I forgot to send in last time)- maybe a doll maker will buy it?

[~Heyokha~]

I had no idea!! Dp just cut his hair (over 12 inches) and we were going to send it to LoL.

[asoulunbound]

bummer. I donated to LoL.
Here is a great organization I wish I knew about when I cut my 22 inches. Two of my friends were able to donate- Jade and Carron in the "hope giver" section.

[asoulunbound]

oops

Oddly enough, forgot to LINK the org!!!
http://www.shearhope.org/

[VegHipMama]

I don't have a dog in this fight, but since my best friend's husband has been donating to them for years, I started following the links provided here so that I could let them know. It seems that all the info in the links are from at least 5 years ago. When I went to the BBB's give.org site, for example, and rooted around for the most recent info (valid until 2008), LoL was considered to be in complete compliance: BBB's 2007-2008 findings for LoL

Is it possible that the organization has gotten new management and cleaned up its act?

[Isaac'sMa]

Bummer. I donated about 16 inches of my hair to LoL right after ds was born

[AlexisT]

The cost of making these wigs is astronomical. I know women who have custom human hair wigs. They run into the thousands, and a huge portion of the cost is the work that goes into making them.

i would imagine that some kids with alopecia do want a wig--teenage girls, for example, want to look "normal". It is a small market, though, so LoL gets more publicity than it deserves.

(Not that I'm defending all of LoL's practices, but this is something you should be aware of).

[Terrilein]

I have waist length really thick hair and haven't been given the LoL line since they don't practice in Germany, but I've heard aweful stories of school sponsored LoL events on several sites including the longhaircommunity. The basic gist of each story is that every long hair girl gets hunted down and pressured into parting with her hair - even if her hair doesn't fit the LoL guidelines because the pony tail is too short, hair is bleached or damaged, whatever (btw, hair that is too short or grey is sold to offset their manufacturing costs according to their FAQ). I have yet to hear about LoL doing anything to curb this sort of hysteria. Too bad I say. They can't be held responsible for this kind of behavior at schools, but they could at least make a disclaimer on their site. And they do mention that an estimated 80% of all donations come from children who wish to help other children. I wonder if they have any estimates of how many of these donations were procured under duress?
Even if LoL were a first class charity, I still have my issues with the hysteria surrounding it. It just raises my hackles to hear of these girls receiving guilt trips for having long hair. Of being told to help all those kids with cancer by cutting it off. Why don't these schools sponsor events to raise money for cancer research instead? Then EVERY child could participate instead of mobbing a few girls.

[myfairbabies]

For someone that wants to do something with their hair rather than throw it away, you can sell it and then donate that money if you want (or just buy yourself something!). i used this site http://www.hairwork.com/bidhere.htm So if you feel bad cutting your hair and not doing anything with it, sell it here! It's way better than e-bay too.

[sonrisaa29]

Originally Posted by sistermama

I think the main thing about them is not how many wigs are or are not made compared to how much hair they get but that their ture admin costs push 50% and they are sitting on a $1million nest egg that resulted directly from money donated directly to them and the sale of hair donated to them. Who knows, maybe they are saving it up to build some massive building to somehow benefit kids with cancer or some such thing, but you would think that if that were the case they would have a capital campaign going for it so they could get as many donations as possible. Anyway, like I said before, their financials look very fishy to me.

According to their 2006, 990 they did give the University of Miami $350,000 for research purposes. For 2006 their program service revenue was $584,572 which thus is explained as "FUNDS RECEIVED FROM SALE OF EXCESS HAIR USED TO PURCHASE MANUFACTURED CUSTOM HAIR PROSTHETICS" (BTW I am not yelling, just direct qouting from their 990)

I do find it interesting that they spent more on paying their publication and printing costs than paying their employees.They ended up spending around a million or so on operating costs, such as travel, occupancy and so on.

[sistermama]

For 2006 their program service revenue was $584,572 which thus is explained as "FUNDS RECEIVED FROM SALE OF EXCESS HAIR USED TO PURCHASE MANUFACTURED CUSTOM HAIR PROSTHETICS" (BTW I am not yelling, just direct qouting from their 990)

Plus no where in their 990 does it reflect the expense of those custom hair prosthetics being purchased. In fact it shows no supply or product costs whatsoever. This doesn't mean that they weren't purchased, but it does mean that the breakdown of their expenses is not terribly accurate and that you can't know how much of that $584k went towards purchashing prosthetics or instead towards supporting their high operating costs.

It also noted that from the time of their founding until 2005 they helped 1,700 families. That doesn't seem like a large amount of people to me for the vast quantities of money they are reporting. Plus the nest egg they are sitting on is now over $2million, which is HUGE for a company with their annual revenue. My old nonprofit has an annual budget of about $1million/year and we were thrilled when we were able to put together a reserve fund of $100,000. That was considered an accomplisment for someone of our size.

I say sell your hair people, and donate the money to a more transparent organization.

[jamsmama]

No way would I ever donate my hair so that Lindsay Lohan can have hair extensions!!

[Tuesday]

I've been reading this thread with interest. I've only been exposed to Locks of Love from what I've read online. I do have alopecia universalis - developed it when I was 35 and have now lost all my hair. Since developing this condition, I've been absolutely mystified by the idea of donating one's hair to this organization to make human hair wigs. Yes, human hair wigs cost several THOUSAND dollars and they only last a couple years. And they are bloody annoying because unlike one's real hair, you are stuck with the same style. I do know children who wear wigs but I've not heard of them buying them or being awarded them via Locks of Love. Many children opt not to wear wigs because they are annoying, expensive and get in the way of many childhood activities. I have and do wear synthetic wigs and have to say they are expensive (hundreds of dollars) and only last 2-3 months. So, synthetic wigs may not be desirable for a child either. I mostly wear scarves and most people I know with alopecia or chemotherapy-related hair loss do similarly (especially in hot weather).

I'd say if you were interested in helping children who have lost their hair due to chemotherapy or to alopecia, you should make a donation to fund research for cancer or at www.NAAF.org - an organization, I should add, that makes no reference to Locks of Love.

I said at the opening of this post I was mystified by the interest in donating hair. I guess one has long hair and wants "to help". It would be great if the hair was made into wigs for kids (and adults - there is a need for adults too) but it seems like the company is dodgy. I've always been suspicious of LoL since people I know who have had chemotherapy generally lose their hair for a short time and synthetic wigs or scarves or are generally a good option short term option. Some ideas for people wanting to help: Again, I would be more interested in donating money to fund research for cancer than donating hair to an organization that seems suspect. Another idea - buy pretty synthetic wigs and donate them to your local Cancer society. I've donated several hundred dollars worth of new or nearly new wigs and it's always appreciated because many adults and children can't afford the expensive of even one synthetic wig which, at least in Canada, can cost $200 or more.

[SwanMom]

Another thing to do with hair: It's great thing to put in your compost pile.

[annamari]

Locks of Love donation

I was planning to donate my hair to LoL because it's sooo long and I've gotten quite sick of having the same hairdo as I had four years ago. I was all excited that since I was going to cut my hair anyway I could at least do something nice with it and help someone out.. and then I read the thread above. I'm not going to donate my hair now, since it seems like it wouldn't do much good. The trouble of having it cut to the right length and mailing it just isn't worth it if I'm not even sure it's going to honest people! But if there are any organizations that are clearly honest about their wigmaking services.. I would still donate. One of the posts above mentions another group but says they are also rather shady. Does anyone know of another group? I will be cutting my hair anyway, and it is nice hair if I may say so myself, so.. yeah. It would be nice to have it be used rather than just thrown away. Or, how does one go about selling it on eBay?