Mother, daughter duo continue hairy tradition

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Cortney Paxton
  • 341st Missile Wing Public Affairs
MALMSTROM AIR FORCE BASE, Mont. --  Melissa Laferriere, 341st Medical Operations Squadron mental health technician, made a trip to the hair salon with her daughter Savanna Garcia, 14, who went home with a new, shorter hairstyle - a new style that could help a complete stranger through difficult times.

As part of a mother, daughter tradition, Garcia; also a dependent of Tech. Sgt. David Garcia Jr., 341st Civil Engineer Squadron NCO in charge of pavements and equipment; had more than 10 inches of hair cut off to be donated to a charity that makes wigs for needy Canadian and American children.

"She's giving to Locks of Love this year," Laferriere said. "You have to have six locks of hair, 10 inches or longer, in order to make one wig."

Garcia and Laferriere alternate, every other year, donating hair to a few different wig charities. While this year was Garcia's turn to give, her mother anxiously waits for her turn next year.

This tradition, now in its seventh year, started when Garcia was 7 years old and was watching a movie.

"We were watching a movie and it had something on there about somebody who had gone through chemotherapy," Laferriere said. "She saw that [this person] didn't have hair and she asked me why she didn't have hair. So I explained to her that when you go through chemotherapy sometimes you lose your hair. Then I told her ... people donate their hair to keep people warm. She was excited and said she wanted to do that."

The first year donating, both Garcia and her mother donated hair. The following year, the pair realized that Laferriere's hair grew faster, so she donated while Garcia waited until the next, thus beginning the alternating tradition.

It was Garcia's curiosity that got her interested in donating hair, but it was a few family connections that keep her going.

"My grandma has breast cancer, my grandpa died of cancer and my distant cousin has cancer all over her spine," Garcia said. "I started [donating] before I even knew that they had it, but I guess now you could say I do [celebrate them] by doing this."

The charity Garcia chose to donate to requires a minimum of 10 inches of hair to be donated in order to be used in their wigs; however, any length of hair can be donated - by anyone.

"For locks of love, there are stipulations," Laferriere said. "However, they do accept grey hair and lengths shorter than 10 inches as a donation because they can sell that to other companies - they just can't use that in their wigs. There are benefits to donating no matter how much or little it is."

Both Garcia and Laferriere have donated hair four times. They never know who benefits from their donation and have never requested a notification card from the companies. They do it simply for the sake of giving back.

"I just think that if I can do something to help people, I might as well give my hair - it's the least I could do," Garcia said. "I guess I just feel neutral. I've gotten so used to it that it's normal to me."

"It's a donation - it's something that we do out of the goodness of our hearts," Laferriere added.