Locks of love.

On June 21, the Seattle Times reported the plight of 11-year-old Dominic Bizak of Kent, Washington. Dominic endured 20 months of teasing (and occasionally being mistaken for a girl) after deciding to let his hair grow to a length suitable for donation to Locks of Love. LOL is a charitable group that provides wigs for young people (ages 18 and under) who have lost their hair due to medical problems. The group's objective is to "help every financially disadvantaged child suffering from long-term hair loss."

Since receiving non-profit, charitable status in December 1997, LOL has collected chemically untreated hair (10 inches or more in length) for the manufacture and distribution of some 1,400 wigs. Around 140,000 hair strands are inserted into a skull cap, which is then fitted onto a youngster's head with a vacuum seal in a way that enables it to be worn even when swimming.

While Dominic was allowing his contribution to LOL to grow, he was occasionally ridiculed by both adults and peers. On one occasion when Dominic was playing soccer, the referee noted his hair and addressed Dominic's all-male team as "you boys and girl." And in May of this year, Dominic was momentarily barred from using the boy's bathroom during a Boy Scout camp-out when fellow scouts claimed to mistake him for a girl. Dominic became discouraged at one point and considered abandoning his mission, but says that his mother "helped me get through it." When he was finally able to get his hair cut and send his 12-inch strands to LOL, Dominic knew that his perseverance had paid off in doing "a good deed and helping someone."

The Locks of Love initiative was spearheaded by Madonna Coffman, a retired cardiac nurse with extensive volunteer experience helping non-profit organizations. In her 20s, she had developed alopecia (loss or absence of hair) in the wake of a hepatitis vaccination. She recovered, but a few years later, when her four-year-old daughter developed the same malady, she quit her other charitable endeavors to become a full-time volunteer for the fledgling LOL program.

Locks of Love produced 21 hairpieces the first year. Today, more than 1,000 are manufactured annually, with recipients in all 50 states and Canada.