One snip and it's gone!

For the last four years, I've been involved with a youth mentoring program offered through my work. Every other week, youth from a Los Angeles area high school are brought in and we work with them on a variety of issues - from school to personal life, goal setting, college etc.

My mentee for the last couple of years has been Jeanette, who is graduating in about a month, and recently accepted a position at a private liberal arts college in Pennsylvania with the hopes of studying theater and teaching.

For the last 3 years, she's been growing her hair and talking about cutting it off to donate to Locks Of Love, a non-profit organization who create hairpieces from donated hair for financially disadvantaged children who have suffered hair loss for whatever reason. I can't fully explain how happy I was when Jeanette asked me to go with her to do this - an event she had been planning for around her 18th birthday (which was April 2.) Apart from being a wonderful bonding experience for the two of us, it was also an opportunity for her to shed her high school self and move forward into "adulthood" as she heads off to college and a world of new experiences.

Of course, I took the opportunity to document this incredibly rewarding occasion and the pictures really speak for themselves!

Also, thanks to Great Clips. They're a Locks Of Love salon and if you donate the hair, they donate the haircut.

One happy Jeanette, who claims that her head feels about 3 lbs lighter!