By Steve Knight/reporter3@trcle.com
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If a Cleburne girl has anything to do with it, a child with medical hair loss could soon be wearing a prosthetic containing some of her hair.
Lexus Poe, 6, a first-grade student at Irving Elementary in Cleburne, recently cut her long hair to donate to Locks of Love, a West Palm Beach, Fla.-based not-for-profit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children 21 and younger with medical hair loss. Custom-fitted hair prosthetics are provided free of charge or on a sliding scale to children whose families meet the organization’s guidelines.
Poe said she got the idea from her grandmother Margie Lackey, who died of a cancer-related illness last year.
“I saw people cutting their hair,” she said. “The hair is going to go to the cancer kids. I hope it will make someone happy.”
Poe also said she hopes her school friends and relatives will donate also.
The organization, which started in 1998, aims to help financially disadvantaged children who are living with the daily trials of medical hair loss.
Donors provide the hair, volunteers open and sort the donations, and the manufacturer hand-assembles each piece, which requires approximately four to six months.
According to its website, more than 80 percent of the donors are children, making this a charity where kids have the opportunity to help other kids.
According to officials at Locks of Love, the organization provides recipients with a custom, vacuum-fitted hairpiece made entirely from donated human hair. The vacuum fit is designed for children who have experienced a total loss of scalp hair and does not require the use of tape or glue.
Most of the applicants suffer from alopecia areata, an auto-immune condition that causes round patches of hair loss, for which there is no known cause or cure.
Others have suffered severe burns or have undergone radiation treatment in addition to many other dermatological conditions that result in permanent hair loss, organization officials said.
Mother Darlene Poe said Lexus will receive a certificate from the organization for her donation.
But now that her hair is short, Lexus knows what she is going to do next with her new do.
“I’m going to grow it long again so I can make another donation,” she said.
For more information, e-mail info@locksoflove.org, visit www.locksoflove.org or call 888-896-1588.
