Locks of Love is a

501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 50 ...

nonprofit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

charity Charity may refer to: Giving * Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons * Charity (practice), the practice of being benevolent, giving and sharing * Ch ...

that provides custom-made hair prosthetics to disadvantaged children up to the age of 21 who have suffered hair loss as a result of medical conditions, such as

alopecia Hair loss, also known as alopecia or baldness, refers to a loss of hair from part of the head or body. Typically at least the head is involved. The severity of hair loss can vary from a small area to the entire body. Inflammation or scar ...

, burn trauma, and

cancer treatment Cancer can be treated by surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, hormonal therapy, targeted therapy (including immunotherapy such as monoclonal antibody therapy) and synthetic lethality, most commonly as a series of separate treatments (e.g. ...

. They are provided to the children free of charge, and they may receive a new one every two years until they turn 21 years old.Get Involved
. ''Locks of Love''. Retrieved October 21, 2020. Locks of Love says that, despite rumors to the contrary, children and their families are never charged for the hair prosthetics they receive. Locks of Love accepts donations of

human hair Hair is a protein filament that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Hair is one of the defining characteristics of mammals. The human body, apart from areas of glabrous skin, is covered in follicles which produce thick terminal and fine ...

, and it also accepts financial donations.

History

Locks of Love was founded by Madonna W. Coffman on May 28, 1997. Coffman was a registered nurse who had suffered from

in her twenties. Coffman's daughter also had allopecia and lost all her hair at the age 4. Locks of Love received a determination of its 501(c)(3) status from the

Internal Revenue Service The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory ta ...

in December 1997.History
. ''Locks of Love''. Retrieved March 11, 2012. By September 2006, Locks of Love had provided about 2,000 wigs to recipients completely free of charge.Hayt, Elizabeth (September 6, 2007).

. ''The New York Times''. Retrieved March 11, 2012. A 2007 'hair donation day' at the American Aviano_Air_Base_in_Italy_.html" ;"title="Italy.html" ;"title="Aviano Air Base in Italy">Aviano Air Base in Italy ">Italy.html" ;"title="Aviano Air Base in Italy">Aviano Air Base in Italy

Tax deductions

Financial donations to Locks of Love are tax-deductible as charitable contributions to the extent of the law.Publication 526: Charitable Contributions
(pdf). ''Internal Revenue Service''. Retrieved June 1, 2011.Frequently Asked Questions
. ''Locks of Love''. Retrieved October 21, 2020. The Internal Revenue Service considers hair to be a body part, and donations of body parts are not considered tax deductible by the Internal Revenue Service. The cost of the haircut, however, may be a tax-deductible charitable contribution.

Operations

The best quality hair donated to Locks of Love is sent to a wig manufacturer, Taylormade hair Replacement in

Millbrae, California Millbrae is a city located in northern San Mateo County, California, United States. To its northeast is San Francisco International Airport, San Bruno is on its northwest, and Burlingame on its southeast. It is bordered by San Andreas Lake t ...

. The highest quality

long hair Long hair is a hairstyle where the head hair is allowed to grow to a considerable length. Exactly what constitutes long hair can change from culture to culture, or even within cultures. For example, a woman with chin-length hair in some cultures ...

is used to make a wig for a child. Gray hair, overly processed hair, too-short hair, bleached hair, and hair that is otherwise not high enough quality for a child's wig is sold, and the proceeds are used to further the organization's mission, such as grants for medical research into alopecia. In 2007, Locks of Love said that about 80 percent of the hair donated to it is not suitable to be made into a child's wig. In 2013, ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

'' and ''

The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...

'' reported that up to

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

6million-worth of hair donations are unaccounted for by the charity each year.Chao, Kent (May 13, 2013).
Locks Of Love: $6 Million Of Hair Donations Unaccounted For Each Year
. ''

''. Retrieved April 21, 2014.Goldberg, Eleanor (May 14, 2013).
Locks Of Love Has More Than $6 Million Worth Of Donated Hair That Is Unaccounted For: Report
. ''

''. Retrieved April 21, 2014. ''

Snopes ''Snopes'' , formerly known as the ''Urban Legends Reference Pages'', is a fact-checking website. It has been described as a "well-regarded reference for sorting out myths and rumors" on the Internet. The site has also been seen as a source f ...

'' pointed out that the discrepancies can be attributed to the difficulty of valuing hair and that Locks of Love's tax filing shows no income that would result from

black market A black market, underground economy, or shadow economy is a clandestine market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality or is characterized by noncompliance with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the se ...

hair sales. During its 2018 fiscal year, Locks of Love received $513,103 of revenue, and it incurred $724,897 of expenses.

Notable donors

After launching aboard the Space Shuttle ''Discovery'',

astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...

Sunita Williams Sunita Lyn Williams (born September 19, 1965) is an American astronaut and United States Navy officer who formerly held the records for most spacewalks by a woman (seven) and most spacewalk time for a woman (50 hours, 40 minutes). Williams was ...

arranged to donate her ponytail to Locks of Love. Fellow astronaut

Joan Higginbotham Joan Elizabeth Higginbotham (born August 3, 1964) is an electrical engineer and a former NASA astronaut. She flew aboard Space Shuttle ''Discovery'' mission STS-116 as a mission specialist and is the third African American woman to go into spa ...

cut her hair aboard the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...

, and the ponytail was brought back to Earth by the

STS-116 STS-116 was a Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) flown by Space Shuttle '' Discovery''. ''Discovery'' lifted off on 9 December 2006 at 20:47:35 EST. A previous launch attempt on 7 December had been canceled due to cl ...

crew. All-American football player and Chicago Bears first-round draft pick

Gabe Carimi Gabriel Andrew Carimi ( ; born June 13, 1988) is a former American football guard. Carimi had 49 starts at left tackle in his four-year Wisconsin Badgers college career, which culminated at the 2011 Rose Bowl. He was awarded the 2010 Outland T ...

's maternal uncle suffered from

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...

as a child, underwent

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated to chemo and sometimes CTX or CTx) is a type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) as part of a standardized chemotherapy regimen. Chemotherap ...

while he was in second grade, and lost his hair in the process. At nine years old, his uncle died. He was mentioned often in family discussions.Mason (April 23, 2010).
Lots of locks means lots of love from Carimi: Wisconsin senior donates hair to charity aimed at improving life for ill children
. ''University of Wisconsin''. Archived fro

on December 29, 2010. Carimi thought he would do something "that wouldn't take a lot of my time but would help other people". He grew his hair for 20 months, until it was long enough to donate to Locks of Love in 2010. Professional wrestler

The Honky Tonk Man Roy Wayne Farris (born January 25, 1953), better known by the ring name The Honky Tonk Man, is an American retired professional wrestler. He previously wrestled for World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE ...

has stated that he donates his hair to Locks of Love once a year.

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

player

George Parros George James Parros (born December 29, 1979) is an American former professional ice hockey player who played nine seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL), who currently serves as the head of the NHL's Department of Player Safety, with the tit ...

has grown his hair long since the start of his professional hockey career, so he can donate it to Locks of Love.Parros Cuts Hair for a Cause
. ''

Anaheim Ducks The Anaheim Ducks are a professional ice hockey team based in Anaheim, California. The Ducks compete in the Western Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division, and play their home games at Honda Center. ...

''. December 17, 2007. Retrieved June 1, 2011.

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://locksoflove.org * /www.bbb.org/charity-reviews/national/children-and-youth/locks-of-love-in-west-palm-beach-fl-1839 BBB Charity Reports - Locks of Love* /www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm/bay/search.summary/orgid/9285.htm Charity Navigator Report: Locks of Love* /www.guidestar.org/organizations/65-0755522/locks-love.aspx GuideStar Basic Report for Locks of Love* /nonprofitinvestor.org/locksoflove Nonprofit Investor Report for Locks of Love Charities based in Florida Hairdressing Health charities in the United States Medical and health organizations based in Florida