Locks of Love Responds (and Calls the NY Times Liars)
"Locks of Love has enjoyed many years of accurate media, high ratings from well respected organizations, positive feedback from hair donors and recipients. The New York Times article which appeared on Thursday, September 6th that Mr. Stamp refers to is not only inaccurate but inappropriate in its intent. This reporter actually acknowledged to several people interviewed that she was unable to discover any of the negative information her “editors” asked her to report. After numerous and lengthy interviews with this reporter over a few week period, the story does not reflect the conversations that occurred. Our last contact with this reporter was the day prior to the story appearing. At this time she hoped to extrapolate on a factual statistic given to her and created a quote that states inflated numbers. She was discouraged from using the inaccurate quotations. Unfortunately, our suggestions were not heeded.
To clarify exactly what information she had and should have utilized: The ONLY hair that is EVER “thrown out” is hair that has been swept off the floor or has become moldy from being packaged wet over a long period, prior to receipt. The grossly false interpretation of this fact is unprofessional and inexcusable and diminishes the efforts of volunteers who assist with our daily mail. The Locks of Love Web site has and continues to provide guidelines for donating as well as information which details how unusable hair still benefits the children in need, although not physically placed in a prosthesis. In addition, she chose not to include the exciting successes for new treatment as a direct result of a Locks of Love $500,000 research grant to the University of Miami Department of Dermatology to find a cure.
Locks of Love recognizes all the charitable gestures from donors with a personalized thank you, which is mailed to their homes if return address information is provided. All donors can be assured that hair submissions, which meet the requirements posted on locksoflove.org will be used in a prosthesis for a child with long term medical hair loss. These children have endured disappointments in their lives that many of us could only imagine. For this seemingly, intentional misrepresentation in The New York Times and its attempt to cast a shadow on the good deeds of Locks of Love, is simply unconscionable.
Madonna Coffman
President, Locks of Love"
Labels: Locks of Love, Madonna Coffman, New York Times
posted by Trent Stamp at 4:42 PM
25 Comments:
I'm having a hard time believing that the editors of the NY Times are out to "get" Locks of Love and are making up things about them.
This is great stuff, Trent. Either the New York Times is for some reason slandering one of the most feel-good charities in the country, or that charity is throwing out (and selling) the donors' hair and then lying about it in your blog. Either way, I'm fascinated. Stay on it.
PLEASE, stay on it. A friend's 10 year old daughter recently donated, and Mom was ambivalent, but ultimately supported her child's desire to do something generous in such a personal way.
Integrity matters.
I have donated several times in the past and never received a "personalized thank you" or any sort of acknowledgement of my contribution.
I have donated my hair twice to Locks of Love, and both times received a thank you card. I would guess that many of the people who were surprised that Locks of Love gives more wigs to children with alopecia than those with cancer are people who did not read the website very carefully, or they just remember the word 'cancer' more so than 'alopecia' because cancer is a more familiar term.
I can also see how fixating on the fact that throwing away ANY donated hair can become a big story.
Locks of Love is the best known of the organizations that make wigs, probably because it is associated with cancer rather than alopecia.
There is a group in California that supplies wigs to alopecia patients, I think it called "Looks Like Me" and they hold some fun events to get the word out and get the donations of usable hair. They have a very detailed website that tells you everything you need to know about donating hair. Since they deal with alopecia they are less popular because not everyone has heard of that disease. I sent my hair to them because I know kids with alopecia and I liked their website better than LOL's and I felt confident that it wouldn't go to waste.
This scam has finally been exposed!! Ms. Coffman states that she doesn't wish to take away the "warm and fuzzy" feeling that donors get b/c they *FEEL* they are helping a child. What about the sick feeing that replaces it when a donor woman who treasures her long hair realizes that it may have become a starlet's extensions, or gotten trashed? I know some, and the truth sickened them. Madonna, how 'bout granting a skeptic access to your inner workings for a few weeks? Bob
Interestingly the President did not respond to selling the majority of usable wigs for profit. I am trying to reconcile the 2,000+ donations/wk and ~2,000 total wigs donated over the past 10 years. Further, couldn't the $3million plus donations have purchased more wigs (even w/o their 500k donation).
I am very disillusioned and disappointed in this 'organization'
Julia..LOL actually does not focus on children with cancer. About 1% of the children who receive wigs have hair loss due to radiation and chemotherapy treatments. Most are alopecia patients. This is taken from the NY Times article "The group makes clear in its literature and on its Web site that most of the wig recipients are not children with cancer. Rather, they are children who suffer from alopecia areata, an autoimmune disorder that destroys follicles and results in hair loss. About 2 percent of the population, including half a million children, are estimated to have alopecia."
With Alopecia, about 50% of patients' hair will regrow in one year without any treatment. If the affected region is small, it is reasonable to observe the progression of the illness as the problem often spontaneously regresses and the hair grows back. In 90% of cases, the hair will, ultimately, grow back. In the other 10%, only some or no hair will regrow. On the other hand, a higher percentage of cancer patients typically regrow hair when treatments have ended. Pantene Pro-V's Beautiful Lengths Program provides wigs to women who are undergoing cancer treatments.
Madonna Coffman cannot sue the Times as they told the truth. Finally. After national PR blitz she fooled everyone...includin Oprah and Matt Lauer. The hair is sold for expensive extensions for rich people. It is a total and complet scam. I tried to get a wig for my nephew and they wanted $3,000 because they family income was $75 thousand for a family of four with major medical bills. SHAME on THEM. There are some legit people but she is not one of them....shame.
This is Mariam ,16 years old, and i just donated my hair to locks of love and IT FEELS EXCELLENT!Everyone is very proud of me and it feels good to know that someone that is in sick health will gain self confidence for having the hair given to them. *3/18/08
Locks of Love states on the website that they can only use hair that is 10 inches minimum. They say that hair that is in the ponytail that is shorter is not able to be used by them and is sold to offset the cost to make a wig. It takes more hair than anyone thinks to make one wig. My daughter and I are both growing our hair to donate. She is in class with a child who has alopecia and wears a wig. This will be the second time in two years she has donated! How great that she is able and willing to help someone else, even if they can only use a percentage of her hair! People need to be logical. Do they think that ALL hair that is sent to LOL is usable? People sometimes have the best of intentions and do not read and follow the instructions. Try doing some reasearch. Other orginazations have the same issues!
I also have to wonder about the financials. Charity anvigator reports that they had %1.7M in revenue in 2006. At a production cost of $1000 per wig, even making 1000 of the 2000 wigs provided so far would only cost $1,000,000. That would leave $700,000 for expenses.
Ms. Coffman should provide a breakdown of how money is spent.
Does anyone know of an organization that is pretty legit and I can send my long locks to? Thank you.
p.s. Locks of Love is not a consideration, they have too many "issues".
Wigs for Kids: www.wigsforkids.org is another association that makes wigs for children.
I gave to Locks of Love and never received a confirmation or thank you, so I honestly have no idea if my hair ever got used, or even sold for that matter. I won't be donating my hair to them again.
Another company to consider is Pantene Pro-V Beautiful Lengths program. They only require 8 inches of your hair:
http://www.beautifullengths.com/en_US/index_home.jsp
This outfit needs to be put OUT OF BUSINESS, THE SOONER, THE BETTER! Any company who is in the business of encouraging women to cut off their long hair, whatever the reason is, without more, a most undesirable enterprise that has no more right to exist than Al-Qaeda. Long-haired women add beauty to the world. Short haired women are a blot on the landscape.
David Justin Lynch:
You are either a troll or an idiot. Either way, YOU are a blot on the landscape, for far more reasons than the aesthetic.
I will be lopping off my two and a half feet of hair in April, taking great satisfaction in an ultrashort cut.
Idiot.
i just cut my hair and glad to research locks of love and am skeptical about their website as well... I did find Pantene doing something does anybody know what Pantene is doing???
I'm with aoede, every charity has suspisious aspects they help people don't hate
God. I feel like an idiot. I've donated twice and they were the only big hair cuts I've had in a LONG time. I only just learned that they might not be doing such a great thing when I got ready to send off my little sisters hair. She's 8 and loved her hair but decided to cut it and give it to soemone else. She is NOT happy to learn that her hair probably wouldn't even go to a kid.
If you have long gorgeous hair, keep it. Your husband or boyfriend will get much more enjoyment out of it. The synthetic hair that is made today is so real looking you can't tell it's not real. It's cheaper and lasts longer. There's no need to de-feminize one's self in order to feel good. It will just end up being a hollow feeling. Plus, you'll get more satisfaction out of making your women friends jealous.
I've donated my hair three times to Locks of Love. I was well aware that the wigs are intended for children and teens with alopecia, which is very important because that's PERMANENT hair loss, and is so traumatic for girls. I was also well aware what hair they cannot use and what hair they sell to offset costs. All of it is available on the website, and if someone was misinformed, it's her own fault for not reading the guidelines. There are soem charities that specifically do cancer wigs, and people wanting to dinate for that should check them out. I will keep donating to Locks of Love.
The Locks of Love donation page touches upon what donators need to do in order to get a personalized thank-you card, what hair may be sold to offset production costs, and what hair is useable.
It seems pretty reasonable.
http://www.locksoflove.org/donate.html
It seems very typical that women with VERY long hair would be INFLUENCED to "cut it ALL off", and to donate their beautiful hair. Naturally "locks of love" may give SOME hair to kids, but WOMEN NEED TO VIEW THIS TYPE OF ACT WITH SKEPTICISM!!! WHAT IS THIS "CHARITY" GAINING FROM IT, HOW MUCH MONEY DO THEY MAKE IF ANY...HOW MUCH ACTUALLY GOES TO KIDS ETC...women need TO RESEACRCH ANY charity that uses emotion to "gain something" from the donor. Chances are great that a lot of charities NEED to be checked into more closely. Women do NOT cut off your long hair IF you like it, they are "pressuring you" for their own gain or profit...do NOT get pressured into giving up something you hold so dear to you, and your heart, UNLESS you know EXACTLY WHERE YOUR HAIR GOES!!!!
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