Locks make wigs for sufferers

Katherine Hooper won't have her long locks for much longer as she is having her head shaved to raise money for charity.

If anything, shampoo ads make us want long luscious locks. But for Whangarei woman Katherine Hooper, it has encouraged her to cut her hair and shave her head.

Today at 12pm at Kensington Fitness, Ms Hooper will be pledging her ponytail to the Pantene Beautiful Lengths campaign and shaving her head to raise money for CanTeen.

It was after seeing the Pantene Beautiful Lengths ad on television that kick-started Ms Hooper's desire to cut her hair. The campaign encourages people to donate their hair to make real-hair wigs for women with cancer.

"About a year ago, I saw the ad on TV. I thought if I'm going to cut my hair why don't I donate it, so I started growing my hair out because you're not allowed dyed hair," she said.

Ms Hooper, a receptionist at Kensington Fitness, said one motivating factor for her cut and shave was the high number of family members who had battled cancer.

Ms Hooper said she wanted to do something to make a difference so she also decided to shave her head, then donate the money to CanTeen.

So far Ms Hooper has raised nearly $1000; a total that has shocked her. "I didn't know I had that much until I counted. I put on my CanTeen page that I wanted to raise $1000 but in my head I was thinking $500 so this has blown me away."

To donate to Ms Hooper's fundraising event click here.