Ready To Make The Big Chop? Do It This Saturday

After navigating through the season’s best curls, thoroughly analyzing everything from splashlights to The Swoosh, and mastering the art of the DIY blowout, we definitely get it: Maintaining your 'do can feel like a full time job. But, lest we forget, having a full head of hair is a privilege. Cancer treatments leave all too many women without hair — or the confidence that comes with it.

So, if you’re ready to take the plunge, there’s no better time than this Saturday, September 7, on National Donate Your Hair Day. Those who make the cut are encouraged to participate in the Pantene Beautiful Lengths program, which turns donated ponytails into real-hair wigs available to women who have lost their hair while undergoing cancer treatments. The best part? Wigs are available at absolutely no cost to the recipient. So far, the program has donated 28,000 wigs to the American Cancer Society’s wig banks nationwide and this year, Pantene has teamed up with some high-powered partners to make this National Donate Your Hair Day the most successful yet.

Together with Walmart, Pantene Beautiful Lengths is running a promotion offering donors a rebate of up to $30 in the form of a Visa gift card to reimburse salon haircuts. Through October, simply mail in the receipt from your salon along with the receipt from a Pantene product purchased at Walmart (don’t forget to include your ponytail, of course!) to receive your card.

Think you’ve got the length (and guts!) it takes to donate your ponytail? If your hair is at least eight inches long, untreated or colored only with vegetable dyes, rinses or semi-permanent dyes, and is less than 5% gray, you’re good to go. With a new style for you and a no-cost wig for a woman in need, we’d call National Donate Your Hair Day the ultimate win-win.