BootsnAll Travel Community

i am about to cut my hair 10 inches (donate to locksoflove.com) cuz i think it will just be in the way as i try to

travel

and

look presentable

at once. ever done this before?

Zopa,

I started our 6 month trip with pretty long hair, then 1.5 months in I cut about 5 inches off, then 2.5 months in I chopped it, then 4 months it I cut it even shorter.

I saw plenty of women with great long hair travelling, but for me, it was just a pain to wash and condition and brush, etc. The short hair was super easy, but I always kept it just long enough to put back in a small pony tail.

Also, I got it cut really short for the first time in Hong Kong and LOVED the hair cut. I went to a nicer salon and paid a bit more (like $8 US), but the cut was awesome--very uniquely Asian and they give you a head massage.

If you like your long hair, I would recommend seeing if you can hack it on the road, if not, wait till you're in a big city and go to a respectable salon and chop it.

Also, It was kinda fun coming home with a new look.

I just got my hair cut WAAAYYYY back because it was annoying me in the heat and humidity. The only trouble with short hair is that you have to get it cut more often and by someone who knows what they're doing (as opposed to long hair which you can cut yourself if you have to).

I chopped off all my hair before going to Thailand, and I have to say, I regretted it almost every day. Maybe I didn't cut it short *enough* but in the humidity, my hair just expanded until I resembled nothing so much as a giant mushroom head.

The good thing about long hair: when it bothers you or gets too hot, you can pull it up off your neck. The bad thing - it CAN be quite a hassle.

But you're donating your hair, so just do it. It'll grow back, after all.

hello!

i cut it all off..over 11 inches. what a relief! now i have like 45 minutes more in my day where i aint fightin' tangles!

i highly recommend this path to any who may seek it.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Zopa:
hello!

i cut it all off..over 11 inches. what a relief! now i have like 45 minutes more in my day where i aint fightin' tangles!

i highly recommend this path to any who may seek it.

---

Feels great, don't it

Before my RTW, I cut my hair myself. I knew I'd be on the road a while so I didn't care what I looked like. It started well, then I realized I couldn't cut the back, so I had my boyfriend do it. It was really fun to cut it myself and who knows if I'll ever be able to do that again. I only did a few inches and left it long enough for a ponytail, of course.

OMG, I could never! It's taken me two years to recover from my last hiatus into chin-length hair. Some people just should not have short hair, and I am one of them.
But good for you, I think it will be easy to manage and cool in warm climates.

I have fine, waist-length hair which tangles very easily and if I were traveling long-term to someplace cold/3rd world/high altitude(like Tibet) I would probably get it cut very short. I cannot understand how rural Tibetan women have such long, lovely hair-it must be impossible to dry! I do know they condition it with yak butter-don't know if I'd like to try it...

My hair is currently waist length, fairly thick and a bit wavy. I never have tangle problems if I wear it in a braid for sleeping and during the day when it's hot and humid.

I've donated a foot of hair to Locks for Love a couple years ago (my hair grows very fast!) and loved my shorter-ish hair, but I'm really more of a long-hair person.

Yes, this does keep the tangles out, and traditional Tibetan/Sherpa women do generally wear their hair in braided styles, I've noticed. At the school where I was volunteering in Nepal, the lama/headmaster's mother loved my hair and liked to braid it for me during the morning tea time.:-)

For the past few years, I've grown my hair out until I got sick of it - usually around waist length. Then I chopped it off for Locks of Love. I've done this three times now. I was always really relieved to be rid of the suffocating hair! But I always made sure to have enough hair left to tie back.

Maybe I'm just weird, but it's way easier to deal with my hair when it's long. It's also something I identify with myself. And I look like a clown with short hair.

Also, for those interested in donating cut hair, please please please check with the bbb before donating. I don't want to make those of you who have donated feel bad, but LOL is in bad standing with the BBB, and isn't really a reputable charity. Always check with the BBB before donating to any group, since most places that collect hair for "kids with cancer" sell the hair they get, and it ends up as extensions in some fashionble-type's hair. If you want to help kids with cancer, or something, with your cut hair, e-bay it, and donate to a reputable charity.

quote:

Originally posted by lazyjayn:
but LOL is in bad standing with the BBB, and isn't really a reputable charity.


If you want to help kids with cancer, or something, with your cut hair, e-bay it, .

Yikes! not really a reputable charity? really? do you have any links to articles? i know they sell unusable hair but they say that money goes toward the same thing.

ebay it.
now i am seriously going to upchuck! what is WRONG with people?

zopa

Here's some stuff- Most of the press about the company is positive, but working with incorrect information, also, the BBB report on them is out of date, but relatively eye opening, when you look at their income numbers. At one point, the web site for LoL stated clearly that they recieved on average 2000 ponlytails a week, or 104000 ponytails a year.

They have provided "more than 1000" wigs since they began in 1997- or an average of about 100 a year, at 6-15 ponytails each. they say on their web site that over 80% of donations are from kids.

Basically, their numbers just don't add up. Wigs4kids is worse.

Oh, and if you want to see something really scary, search "human hair ponytail" on e-bay.

links- locks of love
wiki on LoL
most recent BBB charitable giving report
same for wigs4kids
ratings and money on LoL from another charity rating site
random blog rant from a long haired woman

Most of their press is positive, yes, but a lot of reporters, even, don't bother to do real research on them. I'm sure there's worse stuff on them out there. Unfortunately, it's buried in the "40 kids cut their hair to donate to LoL for wigs for kids with cancer" stuff.

So yeah, they charge (on a sliding scale, ok), don't give wigs to kids with cancer (unless it's left them with long term hair loss- not just normal chemo), they sell at least 90% of all hair donations, and they use other companies and cute kids to cover their butts.

If you want to help kids with cancer, donate to the cancer society (which by the way doesn't take hair, and claims that most kids with cancer prefer scarves, anyway).

Or you can donate to the national alopecia areata foundation.

Can't blame people for thinking the company is different than it is, the information's buried under piles of "but the kids!" stuff. I guess I'm just touchy about it because with ~4 feet of hair, I get approached about it regularly. So don't feel bad if you *did* donate hair or money, just accept that it's tough sometimes to find the truth about stuff, and maybe tip other people off.

Of course, they could all change their ways at any time. Oh, and for future referance, did you know that you can get free reports on any 501(c)3 organizaton from the IRS?

j.

Yeah man. I did. Dumbest thing I ever did.

It was in Dushanbe and I was all bored and restless, so I cut my hair.

I had a cheap Russian phrasebook that was written in the 1950's and designed for women going to the salon.

I just pointed to the section that said, 'which style suits me best.' The barber nodded and gave me a stupid haircut.

I love pony-tails.

I had long hair last summer, cut it last fall, and now am growing it out so it fits into a pony-tail again this fall (when we leave on our trip).

I'd like to see how long it is by the time I come home. I think it'd be cool if my husband grew his out too. I think I dig guys with long hair.

I accepted 50 Euro to get my two-year-long hair cut in Frankfurt Germany. They put me on German TV!

Normally I would never whore out my long hippie hair like that, but I am going to spend ALL of this summer deep in the forest. It had to go anyway - might as well take some money for it.

I've been wearing a buzz cut for fourteen years now. It started because I'm a Buddhist nun, but because I live in the world, I don't have to keep it short. I just like the freedom. I use a #4 attachment on a clipper and cut it myself every two weeks. Takes about ten minutes. Strictly wash & wear, never have a bad hair day, never suffer from the heat, and in the winter there are hats. I figure in fifteen years I have saved 114 days to do something other than comb, curl, and fuss with my hair for half an hour every morning, not counting the touchups during the day or at night. At $40 a haircut every three weeks, I think I have also saved $10,399. I don't have it in a bank account, but I've been able to spend it on something other than hair, and my hair (straight, wispy, oily, and resistant to styling) always looked like hell anyway, no matter what I paid for it. Think of it: 114 days and $10K freed up for joy, if I've done the math right. Of course, I'm over sixty and not looking for a partner, so being "attractive" isn't an issue in my life. And yet what shines out is, so people tell me, "radiant and beautiful." For an old broad that ain't half bad. Lots of people say, "I don't have the face for that." Well neither do I. I'm no cute young Sinead O'Connor. But people get used to it, and now I think if I had hair, the people who know me would gasp in consternation. Strangers sometimes call me "Sir," but as soon as I speak they always apologize. That gives me a chance to bestow the grace of forgiveness on them, and everybody feels good. Works for me.

When I was 18 and going on a motorcycle volunteer trip to Zimbabwe, I took my freak out on my hair. I was scared to go, looking back. My hair was long and blonde and I took scissors to it and started cutting it shorter. Then a few more inches. Then bangs. Then it was so messed up I went to my hairdresser and she gave me a pixie cut, short as a boys. But was I lucky! I would have had dreads. We were not allowed shampoo or conditioner and showers were scarce. Yippee! not fun growing out though.

vc