PUHI – Saturday was a special day for six-year-old Emilia Meza who has been waiting for over two years.
Emilia’s grandmother, Sharon Wilson, explained that the youngster had wanted to donate her hair to Locks of Love, a Florida company that creates wigs of human hair that find their way to children who are battling cancer.
However, it was not as simple as Emilia’s wish. In order to qualify for the hair being cut and shipped, it needed to be at least ten inches long, and when Emilia first expressed her desire, her hair fell short of the required measurement.
Rachel Wilson, Emilia’s mother, said she doesn’t know how Emilia got the idea to contribute her hair.
“She just came home from preschool one day and said ‘I want to donate my hair to help other children,” Wilson said.
Rachel suspects that it was the interaction with one of her classmates, Tiana Tacub-Guillermo who was diagnosed with cancer that inspired her daughter’s words.
Rachel explained that Tacub-Guillermo’s treatment was expensive and people were hosting golf tournaments and other fund-raisers to help the youngster who lost her hair during the chemo phase of her treatment.
That was two years ago, and Meza, who is in the first grade, has been growing her hair ever since, Rachel explained.
As Meza prepared to get her hair cut on Saturday, Rachel said she measured Emilia’s locks, and had some two inches to spare.
That was confirmed by Ann Marie Semonian of Boston Hair Design in Puhi who agreed to cut Emilia’s hair so it can be shipped to the Florida company.
With the hair scrunched into a ponytail, Semonian measured the length to be about 12 inches long, more than enough for the 10-inch minimum.
Video cameras rolled as Semonian took the scissors and with a couple of snips, handed a smiling Emilia her ponytail that mom Rachel will ship to Locks of Love.
Rachel added that Locks of Love asked if Emilia could be part of a documentary they are working on and wanted a video of her haircut.
But, Rachel said that Bruce Smalling, who is a videographer for Wala‘au, can do a better job, so she asked Dickie Chang, the host of Wala‘au, if Smalling could video the event so she could ship the tape along with Emilia’s locks.
Once the deed was done, Emilia was whisked off for a shampoo as a preliminary step to a new hairdo that she hopes “will be easier to get the sand out of when I go to the beach.”
Semonian said she’ll do the same service for other people who want to contribute to Locks of Love, but they would have to take the responsibility of shipping the hair to the company.
Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) and dfujimoto@pulitzer.net
