August 3, 2011:  Seven-year-old Avery Jones of Bronxville learned about cancer earlier than many of her friends.  Several years ago, her mother, Joanne Jones, explained, a close family friend died of lung cancer.  "We're closely involved with the family.  They have two children close to Avery's age, and she was very much aware of what happened because the children's father isn't here any more."

"The daughter of one of my friends cut her hair off last year to donate for a cancer wig and told Avery about it," Joanne said.  "Avery insisted on growing her hair out and donating it.  She thought her hair would go into a wig to be made for a little girl with cancer."

Joanne thought Avery, being a first grader, might forget about her project after a few weeks, but Avery continued to grow her hair during the school year.  "On Avery's behalf, I felt that anyone who has cancer should have access to looking good while going through chemotherapy, so we decided to go with a program that donates the wigs to cancer patients."  They decided on Pantene Beautiful Lengths, an organization that creates wigs from real hair and donates them for free to various American Cancer Society wig banks.  Joanne stated that, in addition to providing the wigs to cancer patients at no cost, wigmakers and stylists donate their labor in crafting the human hair wigs.

"Avery was very set about growing her hair," Joanne stated.  She became a regular customer at Continental 109 in Bronxville.  She visited the salon every two months for a trim.  "Pantene requires a minimum of nine inches of hair for a donation, and she had the ends trimmed to keep her hair healthy so Pantene could use as much of it as possible," Joanne explained.

She didn't want to push Avery to cut her hair off.  "It's a huge thing to do that. Your hair is your identity and Avery loved her long blondish-brown hair.  She loved how it looked and she loved to wear it in braids."

Joanne planned to take Avery to Continental 109 to get her hair cut after school finished for the year so the hair would have all summer to grow back.  Avery had other ideas.  Two weeks before the end of school, she announced, "I'm ready to cut my hair off."

"I was really nervous," Joanne admitted.  "We went to the salon and they put her hair up in four ponytails."  A wig requires the equivalent of six ponytails' worth of human hair, so Pantene would be combining Avery's hair with someone else's of similar texture and color.

"They whacked Avery's hair off above the ponytails to preserve the hair the way Pantene needs it to create the wigs," Joanne explained.  Joanne said that immediately after the cutting, "Her hair looked horrific.  She went from having hair halfway down her back to having hair up to her ears."  However, she explained, "When her short hair was styled, she looked like a different person and her hair looks great."

"I like knowing it was an act of giving at a young age," Joanne said.  "A lot of people do this, but Avery is on the younger side.  It was a personal thing, just something she wanted to do."

Pictured here:  Seven-year-old Avery Jones before and after donating her hair.