Growing to Donate

In Advocate, Celebrate by El Barbudo10 Comments

Where It All Started

Growing up with short hair, I watched friends all around me cut their hair to donate to different charities. Most of them were girls and women, but I always thought it was a really cool way to help someone in need, and I wished I could grow hair to donate.

It never occurred to me I could actually do it.

El Barbudo is growing hair to donate

Things Change

I was a lifelong shorthair. I never even considered growing it out. But then, my third year of college rolled around. I missed a haircut. Then another. And then one more. I started to think I might go with the flow and let my hair grow.

Being my first time growing it out, I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t think it would be hard. I didn’t think it would take that long.

Boy, was I wrong.

 

Beating The Odds

My journey to long hair was loaded with doubt. I doubted my decision to grow it out. Especially during those many awkward stage days when it looked terrible.

There were naysayers. My friends, my family, and people I didn’t even know all seemed to have something to say about my hair.

Alec with his family
“When are you going to cut your hair?”
“It looks terrible.”
“Why are you growing it anyway?”
“Are you going to shave your face?” (I was growing my beard for the first time simultaneously. Might as well go all in, right??)

I’m sure many guys have had it even worse than I did. Having people say you should cut your hair gets discouraging, even for the strongest and most committed to the flow. The constant questions and comments about your hair chip away at your confidence in your slowly growing locks. I thought about giving in and chopping it all off time after time. I needed a way to ignore the naysayers. A way to stop the daily questioning and comments.

I thought back to the times I had wanted to donate my hair. I was well on my way to actually doing this now, and it helped. A lot.

That's letting it ride.

Now I had a rock-solid reason to grow it. I thought of finally being able to help someone who wasn’t able to grow their own hair. It was motivating, and I wasn’t going to give up until I could donate.

Not only did it help with my own doubts, but it totally shut down the naysayers. As soon as I said I was growing it out to donate, they had no more negative comments and no more questions. How are you going to question a guy who wants to grow his hair out to give to a child who can’t grow their own?

 

You can’t. It’s the ultimate comeback for anybody with something bad to say about your hair.

I had more and more confidence in my hair every time I could turn a naysayer into someone encouraging me to grow it out to donate. You could even flip it back on them.

“Why don’t you grow your own hair to donate?”

Maybe they’d give it a shot.

I was cruising. I knew I had an ironclad reason not to cut my hair and so did everybody else. It was easy to stop the naysayers in their tracks no matter what they had to say about my hair.

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Alec is growing hair to donate
Alec McKee is growing hair to donate
Growing hair to donate

Trouble In Paradise

Growing was going great. BUT, as my hair got longer, I liked it more and more. By the time it got long enough to donate, I was loving my long hair. I had found The Longhairs, I was starting to figure out how to really take care of it, and I definitely wasn’t ready to cut my hair.

I obviously can’t go back on growing my hair to donate after planning on doing it for so long—and telling everyone I was going to donate. So, of course, I’ll still be donating. But, I’m not going to cut it all off. I still want to be a longhair after donating my hair.

Enter, The Great Cut.

 

The Great Cut

What?? You haven’t heard of The Great Cut? The Guiness World Record Breaking, hair whipping, karate kicking, high fiving event hosted at San Diego’s Port Pavilion by The Longhairs??

There is no better time to donate than at this sick event!

We’ll be donating to Children With Hair Loss. This charity provides real hair wigs to children who can’t grow their own hair for medically-related reasons at NO COST to the recipients!

Longhairs from all over the United States and even the world will gather in San Diego on March 16, 2019 to put their precious locks on the line to help those who need it. It’ll be an awesome time for the greatest reason I could imagine.

I’ll be donating at The Great Cut and I’m stoked to be a part of it!

We are all growing hair to donate for The Great Cut

Growing Hair to Donate: Would You Do It?

Are you on the fence about growing hair to donate? Why not donate to an awesome charity like Children With Hair Loss? You may surprise yourself and find out you love having long hair, just like I did, and have a response for the naysayers in the process.

I’m excited to use some of the hair I’m lucky enough to be able to grow to help a child. You could be a part of it, too, and there’s no better time than at The Great Cut. Hope to see y’all there!