Many students at Cerritos College may be cutting off their hair trying to cool off as summer nears, but what students may not know is that they could be helping by donating their hair instead of tossing it in the trash.

Locks of Love is a non-profit organization that takes donated hair to make wigs for financially disadvantaged kids with medical-related hair loss.

On Thursday, Cosmetology Club President Carmen Peralta put together an event in hopes to make students and the public more aware of organizations such as Locks of Love.

Peralta said, “People cut their hair every day and just throw it away, not knowing that their hair could be helping to give back confidence to a little girl who may have lost her hair due to diseases like alopecia or from side effects of chemotherapy.

“I explained what Locks of Love is to my five year-old daughter MaKayla, who has gorgeous long hair, and she agreed to cut off more than 10 inches to help someone in need.”

The event that Peralta put on was held at the Cerritos Children’s Development Center in front of other children, Peralta’s family and Cerritos faculty; all who were there to help support this cause and MaKayla.

MaKayla wanted everyone to know that she was doing this for those who aren’t lucky enough to have hair.

Alopecia areata is an auto-immune condition that has no known cause or cure that keeps someone from growing hair.

Debra Ward, director of CDC at Cerritos, said that there are 106 families affiliated with the CDC and although the Peralta family is the only family participated in the event on Thursday, the Peralta’s have created interest in other family’s that would like to donate to Locks of Love in the future.

Evidently the word has spread across the campus of Cerritos quick, because on Friday there were students that had already gone over to the cosmetology school and donated their hair.

“It’s been only one day and there have been three students that had heard about yesterday’s event and were willing to cut their hair so that it could be donated to Locks of Love,” Peralta said.

Peralta and Locks of Love would like inform those who would like to donate, the hair that is going to be donated must be 10 inches in length and be in a braided ponytail.

People can also find more information at www.locksoflove.org.