Afro wigs: Aberdare girl's six-year wait to donate hair

An 11-year-old girl who has waited more than half her life to donate her afro hair to charity is weeks away from fulfilling her dream.

Poppy Lee-Burrowes had hoped to give away her hair to make wigs when she was five.

But at the time the Little Princess Trust said it was unable to make wigs from afro hair.

Undeterred, Poppy spent the next six years growing it in case this changed. And this year it did.

In April the charity announced it was now able to make wigs using afro hair after another 11-year-old urged it to rethink after being told her afro locks were too delicate for wig-making.

Poppy, from Rhondda Cynon Taf, said she was excited to cut her hair for charity in a few weeks.

Despite knowing she will miss her "big hair, don't care" look, she knows that "other people will be able to love my hair too".

"I want to do it because of the people that won't have hair. I want to be generous and help," she said.

On a fundraising page, she wrote: "It's taken me since I was about five, I have only ever had small trims in my life, never a big cut, so this is a big deal to me."

Even though Poppy loves her hair "so much", she is excited for a new bobbed look.

Poppy's mum Jessica said her daughter asked if she could cut her hair for charity after hearing about her friends doing the same over the years.

"When we looked into it unfortunately we couldn't donate it because of her hair type, so we just thought we'd carry on growing it.

"It was last year a friend sent me an article to say they were now able to accept afro hair.

"We showed it to Poppy and she was ecstatic, over the moon. She was more than happy to have it cut and share her hair."

Mrs Lee-Burrowes said it was "disappointing" to hear the charity did not take afro hair but understood "because of the extensive work they put in to making these wigs and how important they are".

It can take 30 to 60 hours to make a hand-tied individual wig, according to Little Princess Trust's chief executive Phil Brace.

The charity, which provides real hair wigs to children who have lost their own hair through cancer treatment or other reasons, said it has always offered afro style wigs using straight hair which was later curled into the requested style.

But it was unable to find a wig manufacturer able to use hair donations from black and mixed race people in wigs.

Afro hair can easily break in the wig-making process but after working with 120-year-old London company Raoul to develop a wefting method, "any child or young person who wants a wig now really does have a wonderful choice", Mr Brace said.

"This was about ensuring that any child or young person can feel inclusive and be able to help and support children with cancer and hair loss."

He added: "Poppy's a star, we are so indebted and grateful.

"When you get a youngster like this that has made a decision that they want to do good for other people, it's really heart-warming."