As many of you know my sister Jennifer has been growing out her hair for a LONG TIME. For the last 2 years she has be specifically growing it out to bring awareness to a disease that my sister Emily has called Alopecia. It affects 5 million people in the US. It's an auto-immune disease where your body thinks your hair is something bad for you, so it kills it off. There are a lot of different types of it, from loosing hair in patches to having no hair anywhere. It typically starts in the pre-teen years, making it a very difficult thing to overcome during a very difficult stage of life. I've always seen it as kind of a "secret disease" because you're constantly trying to cover it up and it's not something easy for people to talk about or understand. As sisters we have watched Emily struggle with this disease for years wishing we could help. Even though it has been a very rough road sometimes, she's always dealt with it in a very dignified way. She's been a such a trooper through it all. Since Jennifer decided to grow her hair out she and I have been working really hard trying desperately to find some one to give Emily's story a voice, and in turn bring some awareness to Alopecia. We've tried EVERYTHING. We contacted news stations, talk shows, anyone and everyone we could thought could help multiple times. Unfortunately we were unable to find anyone who would help us. It's been very frustrating. Finally Jennifer decided she really needed to cut her hair so we decided to just do it and we'd each do our own story on our blogs, facebooks, etc. So Mon night we had our "haircutting party". We got all the sisters we could together at my parents' house, (we missed you Linsey and Stacy) and made it a big event. Jenna took photo documentation of the whole process, Emily did the big cut, Jennifer donated 15 inches of hair to Locks of Love, and I did the finish cutting for Jen's new style. Although we didn't achieve our original goal, I still think it was a great experience to work with my sisters on this. I love all of my sisters and am so blessed to have such wonderful girls to be my sisters. Here are the pics.
Before....
Jennifer and the hairstylists about to make the big cut
Showing how much we'll be cutting off (that's a 12 inch ruler)
Braiding it before the big cut.
Emily doing the big cut.
That's 15 inches!!!!
I did a little finish cutting so Jen would have a cute new style.
Jennifer checking out her new style, and loving it.
After...Isn't she cute! (by the way she's single if you know anyone awesome enough for her :)
8 comments:
That is sooo neat!! HOLY COW it was long!! Looks great!
Thats an amazing story. Is there more we can do to help your sister and others?
What an inspiring story. Interesting that I came across it. I have been losing my hair for the past few years. Doctors have done blood work and tried all avenues to search for a cause, and we have found nothing. I have since darkened my hair to hide the dramatic loss. Im curious to search more information on this disease. What are other signs or symptoms?? Hope all is well!
Thanks for inspiring me to be better!
What a sweet thing to do!! She looks beautiful and so does your sister Emily!! You are an incredible family!!
Those changes are always so fun to do. Still looks long to me. ;)
Thanks for sharing! You guys are awesome and so cute! Listening to you talk about your sisters and your friendship makes me wish I had sisters to grow up with. I can't believe how long her hair was!!!
You ladies are so awesome to help her! You did a great job on your sister's hair.That's sad that no one has been willing to help get the word out about this issue.
That is so awesome!!! I am so glad that you guys did that. Her hair is still so long! Its probably so healthy and pretty :)
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