Cut & Paste: a tail of hair

Apparently, the best thing about getting a bad haircut is that it’s temporary, but the worst thing is that the photos will last forever.

Elna Fourie, a principal academic in the School of Media Arts at Wintec, has sacrificed 70 cm of her hair to fundraise for breast cancer and provide wigs for those in need. Cancer touches almost all kiwis directly or indirectly with 25,000 new diagnoses per year.

Fourie’s aunty died from breast cancer when Fourie was much younger, and she once met someone her own age with severe alopecia. These two occurrences fuelled her interest in hair support.

“My hair grows really fast so that’s the one thing I can do to support them”.

The process costs Fourie nothing apart from the “mild inconvenience” of looking after all that hair.

There are plenty of options for anyone looking to donate. When Fourie first donated her hair almost 5 years ago, she did so with Freedom Hair, and this year’s fundraiser was done through the Wintec salon and Sustainable Salons.

Sustainable Salons is a Kiwi and Australian initiative designed to eliminate waste and make a positive impact on our planet. Salons produce all kinds of waste like hair, chemicals, empty hair dye and more. Without organisations like Sustainable Salons, the environmental impact of salons’ waste would be vast.

Sustainable Salons has collected over 240,000 ponytails since its official inception in 2015. The organisation aims to produce an abundance of quality wigs for its customers.

There are some guidelines for donating a ponytail. They need to be a minimum of 20 cm, clean, no dreadlocks and hair must be plaited.

Hair which might not be suitable for wigs is used to make hair booms, which are an effective way to soak up oil spills in the ocean. For this purpose, Sustainable Salons can even take pet hair. Each hair boom may repossess up to 12 litres of oil.

This is Fourie’s fourth time donating her hair, but her first time doing so with Wintec. The haircut was part of an annual breast cancer fundraiser, organised by Julie Ashby. Students from across the media arts and hair and beauty department donated gold coins for the opportunity of cutting her hair.

Ashby has run fundraisers for breast cancer for the past ten years and said she always tries to involve both students and staff. She said while her family has not been affected directly by breast cancer, her heart has been touched by others in extended circles who have fought the cancer battle.

The event also offered a learning opportunity for the hairdressing students. Ashby said, “It’s a good process for the Wintec salon students to learn from as this often happens in the industry.”

Ashby hoped the collaboration between Wintec and Sustainable Salons is an initiative which will stay around for time hopes. Anyone who may be looking into hair donation is invited to join the cause and support the planet and people.