Locks of Love on Steroids.

If you’ve been paying attention, you’ve noticed that I like posting Before & After pictures of Locks of Love hair donations.

Well, tonight we’ve got a winner.

Sometime around a year or so ago, this young lady came in for a trim:

That’s correct.  This was the finished result of her “trim.”

Samantha knew that eventually she wanted to donate her hair, but wasn’t comfortable having just anyone do it.  So on that day, her true intentions were to test me out and see if she could trust me as a stylist (and if I’d be intimidated by her mane… HA!).  And while, yes, we got along just fine and I was more than able to respect her wishes, Samantha was still attached to her hair and let it grow for another year.

Today I was able to finally do the donation.

Typically her mother would style her hair as you can see below.  And by typically, I mean every blessed day.  (You probably would, too, if your hair was as thick as Samantha’s.)  (Yes, that picture was taken today.  Yes, I’m five months pregnant.  It’s all in the clothes, people.)

But guess what.

Samantha is THIRTEEN.

Those braids don’t scream “teenager,” so today she was ready to let some length go and look more her age.

First I took out the braids.

Ah ha!  Now we REALLY can see what we’re working with:

(I know.)

Then we discussed the length at which she was comfortable leaving her hair and how she planned on wearing her style moving forward.  (Mom’s braiding days were over.)  Samantha’s hair was tricky in that it’s naturally curly (curlier than she ever knew), but seemed smoother because of the braided waves.  I really had to over-estimate how much her hair would shrink when it went from wet to dry.

Samantha and I were pleased that we NAILED it.  The curl shrank to exactly the length that I predicted it would.  (Victory!)  She was all smiles and never shed a tear or seemed regretful.  (Doesn’t she look older?!)

I wish that Locks of Love had a way of tracking the donations to see how the wigs turn out.  But I understand that they need to use their resources for more noble purposes than satisfying my curiosity.