Locks of Love

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This article discusses the charitable organization. For the custom of using locks as tokens of love, see love padlocks

Locks of Love is a non-profit charity based in the United States. The organization accepts donations of human hair and money, with the stated intention of making wigs for needy children who have lost their hair due to a medical condition. They have come under criticism for allegedly misrepresenting the use to which donations of hair are actually put.

1 Requirements for recipients
2 Requirements for donors
3 Criticisms
4 Accountability standards
5 Similar Charities
6 References
7 External links
- 7.1 Reports by charity-monitoring groups

[edit] Requirements for recipients

To be eligible to receive a hairpiece, a child must:

Be under 18 years of age.
Have long-term hair loss from alopecia areata (an autoimmune disease), scalp burns, or a similar medical condition. Children whose hair loss is due to chemotherapy may be excluded from consideration, as their condition is considered temporary.
Provide proof of financial need.
Submit two letters of recommendation, a photo, and an essay.

Locks of Love does not provide all hairpieces free of charge. According to its website, prices for human-hair wigs are set on a sliding scale based on the recipient's family income.

[edit] Requirements for donors

Locks of Love accepts donations from people of all ages, races, and nationalities. However, they do have some specific requirements for hair donations they accept.

Donated hair must be ten inches or longer. ^[1]
Hair may not be bleached or chemically damaged, or overprocessed.
Hair that is determined to be too short, gray, or “unsuitable for children” is separated from the donations and sold at fair market value.

[edit] Criticisms

Locks of Love has received criticism for its practice of selling donated hair, rather than using it in wigs as the donors expect. According to a 2003 report by the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance, in 2002 alone Locks of Love had raised over $150,000 by selling donated hair and had received another $213,000 in charitable contributions and grants, but provided only 113 human-hair and 39 synthetic wigs.^{[citation needed]}

Locks of Love representatives are frequent guests on The Oprah Winfrey Show and other daytime television shows, where they provide haircuts to guests and audience members. Though the representatives and show hosts normally suggest that the hair collected during the show will go into a wig, that the wigs are given free of charge to children with cancer, neither of these outcomes are guaranteed.

[edit] Accountability standards

The Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance report, valid through April 2007, states that at the time the report was published Locks of Love did meet all twenty of its "Standards for Charity Accountability."

According to the latest report available on the Charity Navigator site (Fiscal Year Ended 11/04), Locks of Love scored an overall rating of 68.11 out of 70 (“four stars”).

These organizations seem to evaluate only the finances of charities. They do not have any comments on whether donated hair is used as donors expect, for wigs. They also don't evaluate sources of income in detail, so it is not possible to tell how much of Locks of Love's income is from the sale of donated hair.

The Better Business Bureau reports that Locks of Love made $352,401 from "unusable material sales."

[edit] Similar Charities

Pantene and HairUWear take donations of hair through a program called Beautiful Lengths and produce hairpieces which then go to women who have been affected by hairloss from cancer treatment.^[2]

Wigs for Kids accepts hair donations to create custom made, human hair replacements for children who have temporary or long term hair loss due to burns, chemotherapy, radiation, alopecia, or other medical circumstances. ^[3]