STRANDS OF HOPE

Donate your hair the next time you cut it, and someone in need could get a free wig. Meet the people helping cancer, brain injury and alopecia patients find reason to smile again

You may not think about it much. You might even frown when you look at it in the mirror. But imagine if all you hair were gone.

Abhaya* lost hers when she was battling a tumour in the neck a year ago. “I had long, lustrous hair and when the chemotherapy took it, it hit me hard. I didn’t want to face anyone without it. I didn’t feel like myself,” she says.

It’s not just women. Sumeet* was diagnosed with a brain tumour at 10 and is now 29. His hair never grew back. “I didn’t like seeing myself in pictures. I was so self-conscious about how I looked,” he says.

Both Abhaya and Sumeet got in touch with NGOs that turn donated hair into wigs for cancer patients. Sumeet poses confidently for pictures now. Abhaya is in remission and her own hair is returning.

Hair is easier to donate than blood or a kidney, but not many people know it’s an option. So NGOs such as Madat Trust, HairAid and Hair for Hope are working to spread awareness online and offline, organising donation drives across the country where they carefully collect donated hair and then take it to affiliated wigmakers, who make the wigs for free.

“Before chemotherapy starts, we generally advise patients to get a wig that resembles their hairstyle,” says Dr Sujata Vasani, oncologist at Mumbai’s Breach Candy hospital. “It’s a relatively small thing, but the relief it can bring is immense.”

Sudha, a 49-year-old doctor, remembers the relief her wig gave her. “I meet new people every day, and with each new patient I had to explain my baldness. Just when I was trying so hard to move on with my life, this made it impossible to set aside my condition,” she says.

All the wig recipients we spoke to had a similar response. It gave me my identity back and made me feel like I was on the road to normalcy again, was the first thing most of them said.

Abhaya was so excited when she got her wig from Madat Trust, that she changed her hairstyle every day and greeted the nurses with questions about how they liked the day’s do. It’s not cancer alone. Donated hair is used to make free wigs for patients who have alopecia or have had extensive brain surgery.

“A good wig costs about Rs 30,000, and the cost of treatment is so high in such cases that even middle-class people often can’t afford one,” says Premi Mathew, founder of Hair for Hope India. “So don’t throw away hair when you get your summer cuts. Come to us, and we’ll use it to bring a smile to a chemo patient.”

(* Names changed on request)

I have been making wigs for 35 years. Making and donating free wigs for those who really need but can’t afford them is my way of giving back to society. I wish more people would donate hair, so I could make more free wigs. PANKAJ BHUPATKAR, wig maker who works with Madat Charitable Trust

Anyone can donate hair anywhere. All you have to do is make sure it’s at least 12 inches long, collect it carefully when youcutitsothe ends are not mixed up with the roots, and then send it to an NGO that collects hair for wigs. It takes about a week...

After the knotting, the hair is cut, shampooed, conditioned and styled just as it would be in a salon — except that no hair dryer is used. Hair, once separated from the scalp, becomes dry and gets brittle if exposed to intense heat or friction.

Donated hair is sorted carefully into ‘plaits’ based on length, colour and texture. Each plait is then brushed carefully to remove all knots. It is now ready to be rooted into a ‘cap’.

HT PHOTOS: SATYABRATA TRIPATHY The fifth stage, or the knotting, is where the skill comes in. Two or three strands of hair at a time are knotted into the net. “This needs total concentration and a keen eye for detail,” says Bhupatkar. It’s almost like fine carpet-making. If the hair...

Each wig base or ‘cap’ is made to fit a specific person’s head. “This is a crucial stage of the wig-making process because if this measurement goes wrong, the wig will never fit right. We are very careful to nottomakeany mistakes,” says Bhupatkar.

The cap is made of monofilament net imported from Korea. This fine mesh fits close to the scalp and is almost invisible, making the wig look even less wig-like. The mesh is also thin and breathable, making the wig comfortable and well-ventilated over...