Girl Scouts donate their locks

When Lake Forest Park resident Micaela Brooksbank felt like cutting her hair she organized a Locks of Love event on June 3 so that she and other Girl Scouts could donate their hair together.

“I felt like cutting my hair and my mom and I talked about bringing it to our troop,” Brooksbank, 14, said. “Then we decided to make it a whole project.”

Brooksbank helps her mother, Amanda Horman, lead Girl Scout troop 2682. On Tuesday evening, Brooksbank, her eight-year-old sister, Megan Horman, and 18 other Girl Scouts ages 5 to 14 years old had their hair cut and donated to Locks of Love. The nonprofit organization specializes in making wigs for children who are affected by alopecia, an auto-immune disorder that causes hair loss.

Ridgecrest Elementary student Jayne Rudnick, 8, donated 13 inches of her blonde hair to Locks of Love before June 3 but felt her hair was getting long enough to donate another inch and a half during the event at the Shorecrest High School cafeteria.

“I wanted to get my hair cut because I thought whenever I go on the bars it wouldn’t have to go into the wood chips all of the time,” Rudnick said. “I thought that my hair was getting a little bit too long, so I decided to cut it again.”

Six student stylists from Gene Juarez Academy in Seattle volunteered to cut and style hair during the two-hour event. Brooksbank said her grandmother asked her stylist at the Gene Juarez salon if they would be willing to help.

The group was ready to cut the girls’ hair, according to instructor of the Gene Juarez Academy, Lorenza Mendoza.

“We do community outreach programs quite often,” Mendoza said. “We all thought they were going to be high school girls and then we found out they were mostly younger girls and just thought, ‘Wow, what awesome attitudes they have.’”

Even girls with short hair asked if they could donate, according to Horman.

“My girls that had short hair asked if they could shave their head,” she said. “I told them, ‘No, maybe next year.’”