Locks of Love

:"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.

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 with short-term hair loss are given synthetic wigs.) [ [http://www.locksoflove.org/faq.html#Ac4 Locks of Love ] ]
* 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. (Curly hair can be pulled straight to meet the requirement.) [ [http://www.locksoflove.org/donate.html Locks of Love ] ]
* Hair may not be bleached, chemically damaged, or overprocessed; permed or coloured hair is acceptable.
* Hair must be in the form of a clean, dry ponytail or braid. Dreadlocks are not accepted.
* Hair that is less than ten inches or grey is separated from the donations and sold to offset manufacturing costs.

Tax deductions

As the hair is considered to be a body part and is analogous to blood, any hair donations are not Tax Deductible according to IRS guidelines but financial donations are deductible. [http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p526.pdf]

Criticisms

Locks of Love has received criticism for its practice of selling donated hair, rather than using it in wigs as the donors expect. They refer to the hair they sell as "unusable material" however the buyers are using it to make wigs. According to a 2003 report by the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance, in 2002 alone Locks of Love had raised over $150,000 by selling donated hair and had received another $213,000 in charitable contributions and grants, but provided only 113 human-hair and 39 synthetic wigs. Fact|date=February 2007

Locks of Love representatives are frequent guests on The Oprah Winfrey Show and other daytime television shows, where they provide haircuts to guests and audience members. Though the representatives and show hosts normally suggest that the hair collected during the show will go into a wig, that the wigs are given free of charge to children with cancer, neither of these outcomes are guaranteed. Fact|date=February 2008 The organization was formed to help healthy people with the condition of alopecia, not to help cancer victims.

Accountability Standards

The Better Business Bureau report issued July 2008 states that Locks of Love "DOES NOT MEET ONE OR MORE STANDARDS" of the 20 standard for Charity Accountability.

The Better Business Bureau reports that Locks of Love made $352,401 from "unusable material sales." [http://us.bbb.org/WWWRoot/SitePage.aspx?site=113&id=4dd040fd-08af-4dd2-aaa0-dcd66c1a17fc]

ee also

* Pantene Beautiful Lengths
* Wigs for Kids
* Little Princesses
* Zichron Menachem

References

External links

* [http://www.locksoflove.org/ Locks of Love]
* [http://www.locksoflove.org/990.htm Locks of Love IRS Form 990 for tax year 2004]

Reports by charity-monitoring groups

* [http://charityreports.give.org/Public/Report.aspx?CharityID=1839 BBB Wise Giving Report: Locks of Love]
* [http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm/bay/search.summary/orgid/9285.htm Charity Navigator Report: Locks of Love]
* [http://www.guidestar.org/pqShowGsReport.do?npoId=579069 GuideStar Basic Report: Locks of Love] (registration required)