5:07 p.m., May 16, 2007--Students can get many things at Trabant University Center-- food, school supplies, UD apparel--but on Monday, May 14, students also got haircuts.

From 10 a.m.-6 p.m., 33 students came to Multipurpose Room A to donate their hair to Locks of Love, a nonprofit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children suffering from long-term medical hair loss. Volunteer stylists from five local salons cut the hair and students could either donate six inches of hair for dolls for cancer patients or 10 inches for the wigs.

The daylong event was sponsored by Alpha Xi Delta sorority and coordinated by juniors Maggie Norris and Kathleen Gove, service philanthropy chairs for the sorority. Sorority volunteers helped students sign in, measured and recorded the cut hair and stored it in bags for Locks of Love. By the end of the day, the sorority gathered 48.7 feet of hair, which included donations from previous haircuts and 18.6 feet from Clara Bella Salon.

Norris said senior and sorority member Denise Murray started the event two years ago, but due to her student teaching commitments Murray was unable to organize this year's event. Norris said she and Gove volunteered to take the lead. “Hopefully it can be a tradition, and we can do it every year,” Norris said. “I'm really excited because the girls seem really happy to do it, and we've got a lot of positive response.”

Junior Miluska Triveno, a sorority member, said she donated 10 inches last year. This year, she donated six. “I feel bad that there are kids who don't have hair,” Triveno said. “People donate blood all the time, but no one thinks to donate hair.”

Nikki DeFreitas, a stylist at Regis Salon at Christiana Mall, cut students' hair from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. before her six-hour shift at her salon. “It's such a great cause,” DeFreitas said. “How could I not?”

Freshman Stephanie Williams has had long hair since elementary school, but decided to donate 14 inches to the organization. “I've always wanted to do it and every time I've gotten my hair cut, the place didn't donate to Locks of Love,” Williams said. “It's weird. I don't think I've ever had my hair this short. My friends are going to flip.”

Participating salons included Peter Angelo's Salon and Spa, Rape of the Locke, Regis Salon at Christiana Mall, J.C. Penney's at Christiana Mall and Mark IV Hair Design Inc.

Article by Julia Parmley, AS '07
Photos by Tyler Jacobson