Donate Your Hair
Your hair can change a child's life
Why donate your hair?
Donating hair supports our Grant A Wig for Kids program and changes the lives of Aussie kids with Alopecia Areata.
Donating your hair to be made into a wig for someone who cannot grow hair is a generous gift and rewarding experience. It’s very important to us that not a single hair is wasted, so please be sure to follow these simple steps to ensure your hair meets our requirements.
Donating your hair to be made into a wig for someone who cannot grow hair is a generous gift and rewarding experience. It’s very important to us that not a single hair is wasted, so please be sure to follow these simple steps to ensure your hair meets our requirements.
All hair donated to AAAF is sent to wig makers who specialise in making hair pieces for medical purposes. We receive funds from the wig makers and these go to support our Grant A Wig for Kids program, which provides financial grants to help families with the costs of wigs. So your hair donation helps kids with Alopecia Areata twice!
How it works?
There are three very simple steps if you’re looking to donate your hair:
Choose if you’d like to fundraise
Get family and friends to support your hair donation by donating funds to help AAAF to continue our life changing work.
Fill in the Form
Click here to download the Hair Donation Form. Print, fill in your details, and be sure to include when you post the hair donation to us to receive a Thank You Certificate.
Cut and Send
The exciting part! You’re ready to cut your hair! If you like, you can print a copy of our Hair Donation Flyer to take with you to the hair salon. It has instructions for cutting your locks.
*Please note: As we receive hundreds of ponytails a month, we will only respond to those that complete the hair donation form. We recommend using a postage with tracking so that you can see when it has been safely delivered to us.
What happens next?
You've made your donation, and that means a lot to us. Here's what happens next.
1.
Your hair will be sent to a wigmaker for processing
Once your donation arrives, AAAF sells the hair to expert wigmakers. Every dollar raised goes directly into our Grant A Wig program, funding beautiful wigs for those who need them most.
2.
Submit your before and after photos
Choose to share your before and after photos either by submitting them via the form linked, or email them to info@aaaf.org.au.
3.
Run a fundraiser
If you’d like to continue getting involved in raising awareness for the AAAF, you could spread awareness by running a fundraiser.
FAQ
We can accept hair which is slightly shorter than 36cm, but if it is possible for you to wait for your hair to grow a little longer, or get your locks cut into a shorter style so that your donation is closer to this length, we strongly encourage it. Our wig makers need hair to be as long as possible to make the best wigs they can.
During the wig making a process, a portion of the hair length is lost on both ends, from tying the hair into the wig base, and then from cutting the hair to style it. As such, donations need to be quite a bit longer than the wigs they will eventually become. As so many of the people living with Alopecia Areata who are in need of wigs are women and girls, there is a significant demand for wigs of longer lengths. Wig makers can struggle to find the long hair needed to make these wigs, and they become more expensive and take longer to be made. By making sure your hair donation is as long as possible, you’re helping to improve access to life changing hair pieces for people living with long term medical hair loss.Â
During the wig making a process, a portion of the hair length is lost on both ends, from tying the hair into the wig base, and then from cutting the hair to style it. As such, donations need to be quite a bit longer than the wigs they will eventually become. As so many of the people living with Alopecia Areata who are in need of wigs are women and girls, there is a significant demand for wigs of longer lengths. Wig makers can struggle to find the long hair needed to make these wigs, and they become more expensive and take longer to be made. By making sure your hair donation is as long as possible, you’re helping to improve access to life changing hair pieces for people living with long term medical hair loss.Â
Pull the hair into ponytails with the top tie just below where you intend to cut. Gentle pull the ponytail until the length is straight and use a ruler or measuring tape to measure the length. Most of the hair should reach the 36cm minimum length. Curly hair can absolutely be donated. Just gently pull the curls out straight to measure the overall length of the hair.Â
During postage and transport, your hair will be in packaging for several days, possibly even a week or two. If the hair is wet, it can become mouldy and will not be able to be used. Clean, dry hair is always best.
Unfortunately, we can’t accept hair that has had any kind of dye until it has completely grown out. The chemicals in the dye mean the hair fibres break during the wig making process. This is also the case with chemically straightened or curled hair.
Any hair dresser should be able to cut your hair to be donated, so feel free to go to your usual salon or barber. If you like, you can print our flyer with instructions for the best way to cut the hair to take with you.
Yes. Alopecia Areata can be a lifelong condition, and we have many individuals looking for wigs which look as natural as possible for them. We can accept hair ranging from a few grey strands, to salt and pepper, to completely grey or white.Â
Leaving your hair in its natural state is best, as this makes it easier for our wig makers to work with.
It takes about 15 ponytails to make one wig. When wanting to donate hair for a specific individual, this needs to be done directly with the wig maker, which is not a process AAAF can facilitate.
It takes many ponytails to make one wig and your hair might go into 1 or multiple wigs. Once AAAF delivers the hair, the usability of the hair is controlled by the wig maker. We do share photos and stories from our wonderful Grant a Wig for Kids recipients.
Start your hair donation journey
Every ponytail brings us one step closer to putting a wig in the hands of a child who needs it.
If you'd like to keep the momentum going, consider starting a fundraiser. Every dollar raised supports the Grant a Wig for Kids program and helps more children with Alopecia Areata access the wigs they need.
If you'd like to keep the momentum going, consider starting a fundraiser. Every dollar raised supports the Grant a Wig for Kids program and helps more children with Alopecia Areata access the wigs they need.
Submit your Photos
Please note: when you submit your photos your consenting to them being featured on our online gallery and our social media.
