Chemotherapy causes hair loss. This is a well known fact and yet comes as a shock when you are actually confronted with the reality.

Of all the things she is facing, this is the hardest for Millie.

We knew about hair donation for wig making, actually from Millie herself who was thinking of doing this for a charity last year, but at the time her hair was a bit too short.
So after thinking about things for a while, I wondered if we could donate Millie’s own hair for a wig for her?? Why not?
After many conflabs with my ever patient sister Jane and the expert advice of Gillian at
Mark Hill’s salon – we were put in touch with the wonderful ladies at Shepperton Wigs in the UK who advised us on what they needed to make a wig and how to go about it.

The next task was to find a hairdresser who could help us to cut Millie’s hair off in the correct way in order for it to be usable for a wig, after the photo shoot, but before chemo started.
So I did some research online and discovered that certain salons offer a service for hair donation cutting and then I contacted Toni & Guy’s in Rotterdam. It turned out that the style director had experience ‘harvesting’ hair for a wig and after I explained the situation, we were squeezed in for an appointment that fitted into our schedule.

I have nothing but praise for the Toni & Guy salon in Rotterdam. On the day of the appointment we were delayed in the hospital, got caught in horrible traffic and turned up late, but they still went out of their way to accommodate us.
Talk about arriving stressed!

They had reserved a whole row in the salon for us so there were no other customers directly around us and went out of their was to look after us with drinks and so forth. Most importantly, Millie’s hair was cut beautifully, retaining some length at the front while making sure the plait that was cut from the back was enough for the wig makers.

 

 

The hair was plaited first to keep it all together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then the plait was cut off. This took a lot of cutting because Millie’s hair is so thick!

 

 

 

 

Millie proudly presenting her plait!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Emma inspecting the end product…

 

 

 

 

 

Me transporting the very precious plait to the post office. I have never been so nervous putting something in the post!! Luckily the lady in the post office in Delft took over 1/2 an hour to check all the details for super precious international delivery and made the whole shop wait. Just before christmas too!

…and so began the life of Aslana Twigofski! She will be arriving in Holland on Monday 10th February and we can’t wait…!