By Mikayla van Loon
At just seven-years-old, Annabelle has already helped support many with her fundraising efforts for the Cancer Council as well as cutting off her long locks for people needing wigs.
Deciding at just the age of five this was something she wanted to do, on Friday 26 April Annabelle was finally able to cut her hair off in front of her Lilydale school cohort.
Although a crowd of roughly 200 people gathered for the event, Annabelle said she wasn’t scared to see her hair go and she’s going to “keep it short” from now on.
With mum Steph there to cut off the first plait, Annabelle said “everybody started clapping and two of my friends put their hands to their mouths and started shouting out ‘go’ in their loudest voices”.
Annabelle’s hair used to sit just below her belly button but now hangs just below her ears to ensure the length of each plait was long enough for use.
“It hadn’t been quite long enough. For Sustainable Salons it needs to be a minimum of 20 centimetres. Most of Annabelle’s plaits were 30 centimetres long,” Steph said.
Sustainable Salons mainly provide wigs to people going through cancer treatment or who have alopecia.
“They do take all kinds of hair but if it’s not coloured or chemically treated or anything like that, it can be used for wigs for children,” Steph said.
“Children have to have completely natural human hair wigs, so Annabelle’s hair will more than likely be used for a child.”
Steph said it takes around 20 ponytails to create one wig and “6000 ponytails a year for them to make enough wigs for people in Australia or New Zealand that need them”.
Having also donated her hair to Sustainable Salons when Annabelle was three and a half, Steph said it was that experience and then seeing her Pa be diagnosed with leukaemia himself that led her on a path to donating money and her hair too.
“She saw the impact. Two and a half years Pa’s treatment was. He’s better now, back to his old self,” Steph said.
Not only was it a huge step as a seven-year-old to cut off all her hair, Annabelle was able to raise $2392 and counting for the Cancer Council.
“It was a lot of checking in with her to make sure because it was going to be a big change. Usually when kids decide they want to go short, it’s gradual.
“But she was very determined to do it. She was checking in almost monthly for the last couple of years to see if it was long enough,
“I thought it still wasn’t quite long enough, I thought maybe we would wait but Annabelle was determined to do it now.”
For Steph, Annabelle’s teachers and her grandparents, Steph said “we’re surprised, but not that surprised”.
“She’s a very kind and empathetic girl. Along with all of her teachers, we’ve been very proud of her doing it.
“She is just the sort of person who likes to do things for other people.”
