Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Folks line up for haircuts to help children

Hairstylists busily hovered around her, fastening large swaths of hair with plastic ties. The woman smiled, and occasionally, a nervous frown crossed her face as spectators gathered to watch her lose the better part of 3 1/2 feet of black hair.

“Is she Rapunzel?” a little girl asked.

“No, no,” the girl's father replied with a smile. “But her hair is long like Rapunzel.”

The woman, Riza Julian, went Saturday to the Galleria at Sunset mall to donate her hair to Wigs For Kids, an organization that provides wigs to children who have suffered hair loss due to chemotherapy or other medical reasons.

It's part of a 30-year tradition for the charity. Donors are required to have a minimum of 10 inches of hair that is clean, dry and chemically untreated.

Julian, who hadn’t had a hair cut in eight years, said she was happy to donate her hair to people who need it more. Besides, it’ll grow back fast, she said.

“Even though I love my hair so much, it takes 10 years to take care of,” said Julian.

Men, women, and children gathered to donate almost 200 locks of hair, and the bag of 500 plastic ties used to fasten the strands ran out around 2 p.m.

“We need more zip ties,” a hair stylist said from the raised platform at the mall.

The Galleria spokeswoman for the event called for back-up. The radio crackled.

“We need two more bags of zip ties,” she said.

Vanessa Cardinas brought her 4-year-old daughter, Delilah Sinnott, for a cut.

“She wasn’t nervous, I was nervous,” said Cardinas, as her daughter sat quietly during her haircut. “It took so long to grow.”

The little girl, barely taller than the average knee, was happy with her new style.

“I like it,” she said. “Because my mommy said I need a new hairstyle.”

“We all have somebody in our lives who is going through something,’ said Samii Love, an assistant manager at the Master Cuts on the second floor near Dillards.

Love talks gently to the children as she cuts their hair. She asks them about school, and she doesn’t make it about the hair cut, because it’s all about the kids.

The event happened in partnership with the Galleria at Sunset mall, Master Cuts and the Disney on Ice production of "Dare to Dream."

Each donor received two tickets to "Dare to Dream" courtesy of Feld Entertainment, which features the character Rapunzel from the Disney movie "Tangled." The show will be at the Thomas & Mack Center Jan. 16-20.

For more information about Wigs for Kids, visit www.wigsforkids.org or call 440-333-4433.

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