Losing Her ‘Locks’ To Help Others
by Jeff Wright
It is a bold move for a teenage girl to go intentionally bald. But 16-year-old Meagan Broadfield did just that, when on Jan. 30 she walked into the Paul Mitchell School in St. Louis’ Central West End and had her head shaved.
It wasn’t for shock value, or some teenage stunt. Broadfield wanted to draw attention to children with cancer.
Toward that end, the sophomore at Fort Zumwalt South High School in O’Fallon had registered as a “shavee” with the St. Baldrick’s Foundation. Over the course of about three weeks, she raised more than $5,400 through the 100-plus donations she received from family and friends.
“I made a little flyer things and my dad posted it at his work and on his company’s Web site,” Meagan explained. “The most I got from a student was about $60. Other people gave spare change from their pocket, whatever they had. I carried a bucket around for three weeks that said, ‘I’m shaving my head.’ I took it to all my classes, on the first day of class, and explained why I was shaving my head and raising money.”
“Some people told me not to do it because they loved my hair,“ continued Meagan. “Other people, mostly girls, totally supported me and said they wish they could do something that awesome, but they didn’t have the courage. So they just donated money instead.”
At the time, Meagan’s light brown hair was 18 inches long.
“I had been growing it for a year and a half,” she said. I had a lot of people tell me it was really pretty.”
Meagan decided to donate her hair to the Locks of Love organization, which provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children in the U.S. and Canada who suffer from long-term medical hair loss. Hair has to be at least 10 inches long and in a ponytail.
So a staff person at the salon, “put it (hair) in a ponytail as close to my head as they could, and cut it off,” Meagan said. “They used this special razor and had it set about as low as it could go. My hair was shorter than everyone else.”
The Paul Mitchell School was the scene of about 15 “shavings” that January day. Other students followed Meagan’s lead, as did both sets of her grandparents, her stepfather and half brother. They all got shaved.
“I just know that she is a wonderful girl,” Brenda Broadfield said of her granddaughter. “I was not surprised that she wanted to do something like this. She always is helping other people and gong over and above what a girl her age would do.”
In addition to supporting her granddaughter, Brenda said she agreed to be shaved because, “I help a family that has a child with cancer. She had a tumor removed. It was close to my heart.”
A member of her school’s student council, Meagan said she got the idea of shaving her head after attending Gateway, a meeting of student councils in the Tri-County area. “We all met at one school and traded ideas. By chance, I ended up in a room discussing community service.”
That’s when Meagan overheard a girl talking about raising money for St. Baldrick’s, saying she planned to shave her head in one week.
“I kept thinking about it, and I decided a week wasn’t long enough for me to get the money I was going to need, so I decided to organize my own event,” Meagan said. “I did the research on the Web and decided it was something I was interested in. I talked to my parents and they said it was OK.”
Meagan still has some doubts about cutting off her hair. She said turning point for her was the memory of a best friend who had cancer. “I saw the way it impacted him, and I could see the way it (cancer) could impact other kids,” she said.
So what does it feel like to have practically no hair during the wintertime in Missouri?
“It’s a lot lighter, and a lot colder,” said Meagan. “I can always feel the air and the breeze on my head. I’ve had a couple of people who’ve rubbed my head, and I almost told them to stop messing up my hair, and I didn’t have any hair. It’s really weird.”
To cope with the cold weather, Meagan wears an assortment of “Russian hats with fur” she collected prior to getting her head shaved.
Asked if she would do it again, Meagan said she and some friends might get head shaves in a couple of years, when they’re seniors.
“Hopefully, by then my hair will be about the same length, cause it grows really fast. I used to have an entire hand of shampoo, and now it’s dime size, and it’s still too much.”
To learn more about St. Baldrick’s Foundation, go to www.stbaldrickslorg, or phone 1-899-BALD (2253). To contact Locks of Love, logon to www.locksoflove.org, or phone 1-888-896-1588.