Hi-my name is Ben Cloyd, and I’m donating my hair and also trying to raise money for Children With Hair Loss, a non-profit dedicated to providing real human hair replacements at no cost to children and young adults facing medically related hair loss.

 

When a child's hair is lost due to cancer treatments, alopecia, burns, or other causes, the impact can be dramatic and far deeper than cosmetic. By donating my hair and raising money, I hope to help them continue doing this without ever charging anyone anything. I will also match dollar to dollar up to $2,500, so your donation goes twice as far! I'm shooting for a total of at least $5,000 or the cost of 5 hair replacements.

 

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It also might be helpful to tell you more about how I got to this point, as most of you have known me with short hair throughout my life. Last year, at the start of the pandemic and with hair salons closed, like many I found myself with longer hair than I ever had in my life. As an anesthesiologist who often came into particularly close contact with patients with COVID, I also felt that it might be risky to a hairstylist to be in that close proximity to me for so long.

 

(Picture---Hair length June 2020)

 

 

In May of 2020, my Mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, making a tough year even harder. Fortunately, with the help of her medical and support teams, she has done incredibly well and has recovered. Along the way though, she had to go through surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation treatments, and unfortunately, as a side effect of her treatment, she lost her hair. When we were looking for a solution, we were surprised to see that wigs aren't necessarily covered by insurance and the obstacles for someone going through such a hard challenge already were multi-layered and often very expensive. With all that in mind, I told myself I'd donate my hair and also pay for it so someone else didn't have to face the same challenges she did.

 

(Pictures me with longish hair, wedding 2020, and my Mom's hair loss around the same time---a photo she asked me to include in this)

 

 

 

 

 

Below I've included a photo below of my Mom the day she got her wig last year, which was also then styled to match her old hairstyle by a professional stylist. I have to say, this was perhaps the 2nd best moment for me in 2020 (#1 being getting married!) and it was the day I could feel my Mom starting to take a step back to normal. I love this picture, and I'm hoping that we can help make this happen for someone else.

 

 

 

 

Finally---why cut my hair now? Our "super" wedding (we held a small ceremony last year in our backyard) is on September 4th in San Diego, and we decided that while we love my long hair, we thought it would be good to have perhaps the most photographed day of my life have pictures of what amounts to my "normal "hairstyle. Also with it more than 10 inches long now (Children with Hair Loss requires 8 inches), it's long enough to help someone now.

 

(Hair Length as of Today)