Hayley gets her hair ready to send to the wig company.
Hayley gets her hair ready to send to the wig company.
She is only 10, Hayley Webb is already thinking of ways to help others.
When the St Joseph's Stratford pupil decided to have her long hair cut short this month, she didn't just get a new hairstyle for herself, but helped create a new look for someone else too.
Hayleydecided to donate her long hair to Freedom Wigs, a New Zealand company which makes wigs out of real hair for people who have lost their own hair.
Hayley has been measuring her hair every month, waiting for it to get to the required length for donating hair.
People can sell their long hair to Freedom Wigs, or ask the money for it be donated to charity. Hayley says she has asked them to donate the money to the Breast Cancer Foundation New Zealand on her behalf.
"I chose Breast Cancer as a charity because we have a family friend who had it, and I know they helped her when she was going through her treatment. She lost some of her hair so I know wigs can help people feel good even when they are feeling sick."
Hayley says she decided to have her hair cut over a year ago, but has then had to wait until it was long enough to be suitable for donation.
"Freedom Wigs only takes hair which is longer than 35.5cm, so I kept measuring my hair to see if it was long enough."
As soon as Hayley's hair was long enough, plus enough to allow her still at least some hair of her own, she asked her mum Lily to book her hair cut.
"I don't mind having it really short, so I didn't wait for it to get longer and be able to keep more of the length myself."
Within 24 hours of having measured her hair and being confident she had the required length, Hayley sat in the chair at Hair By Jaimie Bertie ready for the scissors.
Hayley was still smiling once the hair was chopped off, as she waited for her style cut.
Jaimie said she thinks she was more nervous than her young client as she divided the long hair into four ponytails ready to cut off.
"It's such a nice thing for her to do. I hope she likes her new hair cut."
With just a few snips of the scissors, Hayley's hair was collected to be sent off to the wig company, and Jaimie got to work on giving Hayley a brand new look.
Hayley gets her hair ready to send to the wig company.
A week later, Hayley is still happy with her new, short-cropped hair, and is waiting to hear from Freedom Wigs about how much they will donate to charity for her hair.
While she will never know who ends up with a wig made from her hair, she says whoever it is will enjoy having long hair.
"Long hair is nice, but it is much faster to brush short hair."
