Locks of Love returns to Penn for its second year

Many Penn students would give the shirt off their back for a good cause — but thanks to a new program on campus, they can now also give their hair.

A group of students involved with Penn’s Newman Center brought Locks of Love to campus for the first time last year. Locks of Love is a non-profit organization that provides hairpieces for children suffering from medical hair loss.

Co-chairwoman and College junior Elizabeth Kopec explained that they recognized a “resource that wasn’t really tapped,” and decided to organize a Locks of Love event on Penn’s campus last spring. The event was such a success — bringing in 72 participants — that they hope to make it an annual initiative.

Thus far, more than 50 individuals have pledged to have their hair cut at this year’s Locks of Love event, which is planned for April 3. This number is higher than last year’s, according to Kopec.

Thursday night, the group held a registration event at the Penn Women’s Center where they attracted several new participants. Organizers showcased a website that renders what donors would look like with shorter hair.

“Everyone knows someone” who has been affected by an illness and experienced hair loss, Kopec said, stressing the importance of the cause.

Pam Putnam, a College senior who pledged to return in April for a new cut, put it simply: “If I’m going to get a haircut, it might as well be for a good cause. It seems like the right thing to do.”

Kopec added that her group will transform the Newman Center basement into a hair salon for the April event.

“There will be tons of people there all day,” as well as with before-and-after pictures of the participants and plenty of food, co-chairwoman and College junior Stephanie Cipolla said.

Additionally, professional stylists from downtown Philadelphia will be coming to make sure that everyone who donates their hair leaves with a stylish haircut. The aim is to reassure those who are apprehensive about giving up at least six inches of their hair — the minimum requirement for Locks of Love — that they will be rewarded with a new ‘do.

Co-chairwoman and Nursing senior Karyn Sulit — who donated 13 inches herself last year — encouraged volunteers to donate the ten inches needed to make a wig.

Perm and color-treated hair can be donated, but not hair that has ever been bleached, the organizers said.

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