Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
HELPFUL HINTS
DEAR HELOISE: A thought for individuals: Donate your hair to cancer patients. Just do a simple search of “donate hair,” and you’ll get several websites with information and instructions. Basically, they want either a ponytail or braid that’s 10 to 12 inches long of clean, not chemically treated, hair.
— Margaret, Los Angeles This is an excellent way to give, especially since many of us have let our hair grow during the pandemic. At Cancer. net we found some guidelines:
■ Choose where to send your hair. Organizations can have different processes, so choose one you are comfortable with.
■ Familiarize yourself with the donation requirements. For example, find out the minimum length they accept or whether they accept chemically treated hair, etc.
■ Find out if you can donate from home, or what instructions you and your hairdresser must follow.
I love the way my readers keep finding ways to help those in need, keeping the giving spirit alive no matter what goes on around us.
DEAR HELOISE: Now in my 80s, I recall early years when I had little interest in family history. Today, I would treasure finding any information about previous generations. People should take a long-range view of their family history and preserve letters, notes and documents that would give some insight into the lives our forbears lived. Someone a generation or more in the future will find such information priceless. Keep notes. Label photographs.
— Robert Chagnon,
Martinsburg, W.V.
DEAR READER: I agree with you. We see smiling faces of family members, but to people who never met them they are strangers. So many important events are lost if no one makes a note of it to pass on to the next generation.
DEAR HELOISE: How about the slew of graduation announcements arriving from kids you have never met who obviously have hijacked their parents’ address book looking for loot? Even worse, announcements arriving in a parent’s handwriting. This bank is closed, especially when no thank you note is sent.
— Overdrawn Godmother,
via email
DEAR HELOISE: When I’m feeling blue, I reach for a favorite poem. It always lifts my spirits and gives me encouragement.
— Lolly in Texas
DEAR READER: We all need a lift now and then, and there is something very calming about poetry.
Send a money- or time-saving hint to Heloise, P.O. Box 795001, San Antonio, Texas 78279-5000; fax to (210) 435-6473; or email