After the hair was cut, the locks were collected and labeled.
A hair-dresser measures a lock of hair using a ruler at the event.
Second-year and first-year biology students Sabrina Sayed and Maha Kazmi were determined to donate their hair to Locks of Love.
If it weren’t for the beauticians, pop music or the smell of hair spray, it would have been business as usual at the James West Alumni Center.
On Thursday, the place was transformed into a salon.
More than 200 donors chopped a portion of their locks at the fifth annual Locks of Love hair drive at UCLA, hosted by the Alumni Scholars Club.
Locks of Love is a non-profit organization that makes custom wigs for children afflicted with medical-related hair loss. At hair drives, stylists give cuts to donors with hair lengths of 10 or more inches.
Thursday’s event raised 2,077 inches for children’s wigs, said Marie Cross, internal campus volunteers director of the UCLA Alumni Scholars Club and a fourth-year psychology student.
Many donors had personal reasons for giving away their hair. Sarah Pontius, a first-year economics student, pledged to donate her hair when she was in the third grade.
At that time, her dad was hospitalized for cancer near the children’s wing at City of Hope, a clinical research center and hospital. Pontius said she heard a girl crying because she was losing her hair.
It was Pontius’ first time donating. She said she hasn’t had a haircut since the sixth grade.
“It was weird at first, but I’m really happy with how it came out,” Pontius said.
Maha Kazmi and Sabrina Syed, first- and second-year students respectively, had to prepare for their donations cautiously.
The two biology students said they wear the hijab, a traditional head covering, for religious purposes. Following their interpretation of Islam, Kazmi and Syed said they have chosen to conceal their hair from men.
Organizers were highly accommodating to their needs, Syed said.
“I asked before if a private room was available and if I could get a female stylist,” Syed said. “(The organizers) are really helping us out.”
But Kazmi and Syed said they would donate whether or not the Alumni Scholars Club could provide them with a private room.
“We’re prepared to just go with it because we want to donate no matter what,” Syed said.
Syed’s cousin, who is currently in the recovery stages of cancer, was able to make a wig out of her own hair before losing it completely.
Most child cancer patients are not that fortunate, Syed said, which makes donating important to her.
Grace Lau, third-year microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics student, said more people would donate if they knew how easy it was to do so.
“If they just knew that this really does help lives,” Cross said. “I think it’s one of the easiest ways to give back, especially for people with long hair.”