A nine-year-old girl from Aberdeen has raised over £1,000 in just 20 days by cutting her extremely long hair – her first hair cut in two years.
Kaycee Mae Wells has never had more than an inch and half cut off her hair before but on Friday she said goodbye to a massive 18 inches of her gorgeous locks.
The youngster is giving her hair to the Little Princess Trust as well as the £1,120 that she raised. She and her mum are hoping that it will give a child or young person the chance to have a real hair wig.
Kaycee who enjoys chatting with friends, playing her games and playing football, said she had been looking forward to the big day.
She said: “I think I’ve been wanting my hair cut for two years and my mum’s said ‘Wait till you’re eight, wait till you’re nine.’ And then she said, ‘Ok since you keep asking we’ll get it cut.’
“I really wanted to get my hair cut but I thought instead of just cutting my hair cut for myself, why not do it for a good reason.”
‘I want someone else to have hair again’
Kaycee’s hair is getting donated to the Little Princess Trust, which provides real hair wigs to sick children and young people who have lost their own.
She added: “I’ve had my hair for nine years, I’ve been growing it for my whole life and I just thought someone who doesn’t have hair would get to know how it feels to have hair again.”
Before getting it cut, Kaycee could almost sit on her hair and her mum said it took around up to 50 minutes to blow dry.
Pauline Wells, Kaycee’s mum, said she finally gave in and let Kaycee cut her long hair: “I said ok if you want your hair cut we’ll do it for a reason.
“If I could have put it off another year I would have. But she’s been asking for two years.”
It was then that Mrs Wells, 50, showed Kaycee the Little Princess Trust and explained what they did.
She added: “I said rather than your hair getting cut and wrapped up and put in the bin then it could make a child or a couple of children very happy to have a wig made of real hair if they don’t have any. She thought it was amazing that she could actually do that.”
Phenomenal support
They thought to also try and raise some money for the charity, aiming for a couple of hundred pounds, and were blown away by the response.
Mrs Wells said: “I mean the sponsorship has been absolutely phenomenal. Everybody has been amazing in sponsoring. Kaycee would like to thank everyone for their kind sponsorship because without it she wouldn’t have gotten the amount she has.”
They ended up having to print out more sponsor forms and said friends and family had been very encouraging. Kaycee’s older brother even promised to donate £10 for every inch that Kaycee was having cut off – not realising there was 18 of them.
Mrs Wells said she was looking forward to it but that it will be a day of mixed emotions: “I’m going to be nervous and emotional. I keep saying I’m going to walk past Kaycee at the school gates. I’m not going to recognise her when I’m picking her up.”
Hoping to inspire others
Norma Lynch, Kaycee’s grandma, said she could not be more proud: “She’s very, very caring for a nine-year-old and she’s got a very soft and kind nature.
“I’ll be crying but I just think it’s a wonderful thing that she’s doing and I’m just so, so proud.”
When Kaycee first told her what she wanted to do, Mrs Lynch said that she would probably cry.
Kaycee then said to her: “Oh but grandma you don’t cry. When you think about the children who are left without any hair and that have had treatment, especially the girls because their hair means such a lot.”
Mrs Lynch said: “I thought it was absolutely amazing for her, a nine-year-old, for thinking that kind of way because there’s not many who think like that at that age.”
The hair cut took place in The Hair Room on Holburn Street in Aberdeen. The money raised will be donated to the Little Princess Trust.