Locks of Love

Featuring this month’s organization, Locks of Love, couldn’t be more fitting. Locks of Love provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children who have lost their hair due to a medical illness. The hairpieces, made out of human hair, help the child regain his or her self-esteem and sense of normalcy in life. By simply donating your hair, you can provide a child with a renewed self-image and confidence as well as hope. This is a true act of love. 

Founder:  Madonna Coffman, a retired cardiac nurse

Mission Statement

Locks of Love’s mission is to return a sense of self, confidence and normalcy to children suffering from hair loss by utilizing donated ponytails to provide the highest quality hair prosthetics to financially disadvantaged children. The children receive hair prostheses free of charge or on a sliding scale, based on financial need.

An Inspired Beginning

When Madonna Coffman was in her 20’s, she developed alopecia areata after receiving a hepatitis vaccination. Alopecia areata, according to the National Alopecia Aereata Foundation, is a highly unpredictable, autoimmune skin disease resulting in the loss of hair on the scalp and elsewhere on the body. The disease affects approximately 1.7 percent of the population overall, including more than 5 million people in the United States alone.

With the help of medications, Madonna recovered from the disease. Fifteen years later her four-year-old daughter also developed alopecia and lost all of her hair. This became the driving force for Madonna, a retired cardiac nurse and active volunteer in the Palm Beach, Florida area, to create the non-profit organization, Locks of Love, in 1998. Her daughter’s recovery became her on-going inspiration in providing hairpieces for children in need. 

How it Works

Locks of Love custom makes high-quality hairpieces from donated ponytails creating natural-looking hairpieces, as opposed to synthetic ones, which often don’t look real. These hairpieces are designed for children, 18 years and under, who have experienced total loss of hair. They are unique from other synthetic pieces because they form a vacuum seal, and do not require the use of tape or glue. The only way the hairpiece can be removed is if the person wearing it breaks the vacuum seal at the temples. Because of this technique children do not have to worry about their hair coming off during play or being pulled off by other children. In addition, they can swim and shower with it on.

Although most of the children who receive the hairpieces have alopecia, children who have experienced hair loss from radiation therapy and chemotherapy, severe burns or trauma, and other various genetic and dermatological conditions are also eligible.  

To make one hairpiece it takes 6-10 donated ponytails. The retail price of these hairpieces is from $3,500 to $6,000. Many families cannot afford to spend this amount of money on a human-hair wig so Locks of Love helps these families by providing wigs free of charge or paying for them based on their financial abilities. Because it takes multiple hair donations to make a single wig Locks of Love sells a number of hair donations to fund its programs.

Since the organization began, over 2,000 children have been helped. Locks of Love has received national publicity including appearances on the Oprah show. Over 80 percent of the donors are children, giving children the opportunity to help other children, which is a great way to teach a child about the virtue of service.

How do I Donate My Hair?

According to the Locks of Love website, the requirements and procedure to donate hair, is as follows: 

• 10 inches measured tip to tip is the minimum length needed for a hairpiece.
• Hair must be in a ponytail or braid before it is cut.
• Hair must be clean and completely dry before it is mailed in.
• Place the ponytail or braid inside of a plastic bag, and then inside of a padded envelope.
• If you wish to receive our personalized thank-you card, please fill out the hair donation form, or write your name and address on a full size separate sheet of paper and include inside the envelope. We cannot acknowledge donors who do not send their name and address (please make sure to use the entire zipcode when mailing):
  
  2925 10th Avenue N
  Suite 102
  Lake Worth, FL 33461-3099

Visit the Locks of Love website at www.locksoflove.org for guidelines on donating hair or to make a financial donation. 

For more information, contact:

LOCKS OF LOVE
2925 10th Avenue N
Suite 102
Lake Worth, FL 33461-3099
Phone: (561) 963-1677
Toll Free Information Line: (888) 896-1588
E-mail:  info@locksoflove.org
Website:  www.locksoflove.org