Loretta Jones with her thoughtful daughters Annabelle, 8 and Zaylee, 5, having a family photo ahead of their final week of fundraising. The girls’ extraordinarily long locks of gorgeous hair will be carefully prepared for donating to Wigs4Kids and children less fortunate than themselves. Photo: Marty Jones.
Like mothers of most little girls, Loretta Jones knows how quickly hair becomes a major part of their identity.
Her eldest daughter Annabelle, 8, manages her straight, luxurious dark blond hair which falls to well below her waist. But those lovely long locks can prove troublesome when she is flipping and tumbling at gymnastics, a sport she loves.
Her younger daughter, five-year-old Zaylee’s beautiful strawberry blond hair has a slight natural curl to it and a tendency to knot, so is not as easily tamed as her sister’s hair. Zaylee loves riding her bike, swimming and playing soccer in winter. So pool outings, or the beach can be a challenge brushing out the tangles afterwards.
Up until recently the girls were happy to let their hair grow with minimal cutting, but now have decided to have it all chopped off. Their parents have always supported them making their own decisions with their hair.
Loretta says the family is blessed with their good health and is aware other less fortunate people are doing it tough with their health battles.
“I put the option out there, well if we are going to cut your hair off, maybe we could donate it to other little people who are doing it a bit tough and need a bit of help,” she said. “The girls were really supportive of that and really wanted to do that as well.”
Creating an online fundraising campaign to coincide with their decision, the family was not expecting the online program to set a $2000 goal.
“We thought that would be a really challenging goal to get to, but we are excited by how much our friends and family, people we know and complete strangers, have chosen to support us in this fundraising,” Loretta said. “We are almost at our fundraising target now.”
Donations of $200 and $100 have raised the prospect of reaching the goal, along with positive messages of encouragement like, ‘Super proud of you’, ‘You girls are going to look amazing’ and ‘Someone in need will appreciate your kindness’.
“The girls do have very long hair, so to chop their hair off was not a small decision by any stretch,” Loretta said.
Once cut, their hair will be sent immediately to Wigs4Kids which styles donated hair into wigs for children with cancer and works with registered charity Kids with Cancer Foundation. The foundation provides essential financial assistance to families in need, and funding within paediatric oncology hospitals across the country.
“The girls have had minimal haircuts all their lives; they have little trims a couple of times a year,” Loretta said. “Neither of them have actually had a proper haircut as such. This will be their first real haircut besides odd trims to keep it healthy and nice looking.”
The girls are booked in on Saturday, 1 February, with Rachel Lee’s Hair Boutique which has generously offered to donate their services.
The girls’ final decision will be deciding how much they want off.
“I will leave it up to them but I think at this stage they will want it cut to about their shoulders or a bit below their shoulders,” Loretta said.
A silver lining awaits Zaylee. “Doing her hair is a bit of a struggle; she does not like the knots and that’s one thing she will be looking forward to – shorter hair which is more manageable for her,” Loretta said.
Annabelle will have more time for her other favourite pastimes of creating, drawing and writing, and her gymnastics should be less constrained too.
If you would like to donate to Annabelle and Zaylee’s fundraiser, click here.
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