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:''This article discusses the charitable organization. For the custom of using locks as tokens of love, see love padlocks''
'Locks of Love' is a non-profit charity based in the United States. The organization accepts donations of human hair and money, with the stated intention of making wigs for needy children who have lost their hair due to a medical condition.

Contents

Requirements for recipients

Requirements for donors

Tax Deductions

Accountability standards

Similar Charities

References

External links

Reports by charity-monitoring groups

Requirements for recipients

To be eligible to receive a hairpiece, a child must:

★ Be 18 years or younger.

★ Have long-term hair loss from alopecia areata (an autoimmune disease), scalp burns, or a similar medical condition. Children whose hair loss is due to chemotherapy may be excluded from consideration, as their condition is considered temporary.

★ Provide proof of financial need.

★ Submit two letters of recommendation, a photo, and an essay.
Locks of Love does not provide all hairpieces free of charge. According to its website, prices for human-hair wigs are set on a sliding scale based on the recipient's family income.

Requirements for donors

Locks of Love accepts donations from people of all ages, races, and nationalities. However, they do have some specific requirements for hair donations they accept.

★ Donated hair must be ten inches or longer. ^[1]

★ Hair may not be bleached or chemically damaged, or overprocessed.

★ Hair that is determined to be too short, gray, or “unsuitable for children” is separated from the donations and sold at fair market value.

Tax Deductions

As the hair is considered to be a body part and is analagous to blood, any hair donations are not Tax Deductible according to IRS guidelines but financial donations are deductible.[1]

Accountability standards

The Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance report, valid through April 2008, states that Locks of Love meets all twenty of its "Standards for Charity Accountability."[2]
According to the latest report available on the Charity Navigator site (Fiscal Year Ended 11/04), Locks of Love scored an overall rating of 68.11 out of 70 (“four stars”).
These organizations seem to evaluate only the finances of charities. They do not have any comments on whether donated hair is used as donors expect, for wigs. They also don't evaluate sources of income in detail, so it is not possible to tell how much of Locks of Love's income is from the sale of donated hair.
The Better Business Bureau reports that Locks of Love made $352,401 from "unusable material sales."

Similar Charities

★ Pantene and HairUWear take donations of hair through a program called Beautiful Lengths and produce hairpieces which then go to women who have been affected by hairloss from cancer treatment.^[2]

★ Wigs for Kids accepts hair donations to create custom made, human hair replacements for children who have temporary or long term hair loss due to burns, chemotherapy, radiation, alopecia, or other medical circumstances. ^[3]

★ Little Princesses is a UK charity that provides wigs to children who suffer from cancer-related hairloss.

References

1. http://www.locksoflove.org/donate.html
2. http://www.pantene.com/en_US/beautifullengths/index_home.jsp
3. http://www.wigsforkids.org

External links

★ Locks of Love

★ Locks of Love IRS Form 990 for tax year 2004

★ Locks of Love: Donate Your Ponytail Retrieved July 22, 2006.

Reports by charity-monitoring groups

★ BBB Wise Giving Report: Locks of Love

★ Charity Navigator Report: Locks of Love

★ GuideStar Basic Report: Locks of Love (registration required)