What is the most beautiful gift you've ever given? For Evert Dela Cruz, it's the gift whose goodness just keeps on growing.

What is the most beautiful gift you've ever given? For Evert Dela Cruz, it's the gift whose goodness just keeps on growing.

Hers is an engaging sort of beauty. Her lush locks cultivated with care, spunky in their sway, their great lengths a symbol of selfless hope.

“I have always wanted to do something that would bring hope to other people,” she muses cheerfully. It was in January 2011 that a then-25-year-old Evert Dela Cruz first resolved to become an agent of happiness by donating almost a foot of hair to create wigs for cancer patients.

Few traits are as capable of being nurtured and shaped to assure self-confidence and security as one’s hair. Every woman’s crowning glory carries a meaningful significance linked to their self-perception and how they project themselves to the world. However for some women who must lose their hair in order to survive, having beautiful hair fulfills more than just an aesthetic need – it fulfills one’s need to reclaim a life that is normal and dignified.

Choosing to donate one’s hair is ultimately a choice to give away a beautiful part of oneself, a sacrifice made in full view so that others may continue to live with confidence and pride.

 

Choosing to Let Go

Inspired by an anecdote of one girl’s donation, Evert resolved to become an agent of happiness to others, despite the hesitations of giving away such a prized part of oneself. “My first hair donation was easy because my hair was already long to start with,” she recalls. “My second time was a bit challenging because it took me more than two years to grow it back.”

Now at 28-years-old, Evert is ready to take her place in the stylist chair once more for her cause. “This time, I want to donate longer hair - about 15 inches!” she smiles, her billboard-beautiful tresses an astounding 27 inches in length. “I want the person who is going to receive it to enjoy having long hair as much as I did.”

 

Grown with Love

You grow what you sow – as such, treating hair with tender loving care is a crucial part of nurturing hair that is healthy enough to give away. “The best part about the experience is I get to try different hairstyles, from buns to braids to letting it down!” Evert laughs. “The most challenging part, on the other hand, is growing it and keeping it healthy.”

“Letting it grow for more than two years requires a lot of treatment,” she continues. From choosing the right hair care products that do not harm the hair, to getting regular trims and keeping chemical treatments to a minimum, healthy hair is a high maintenance feat. To keep her hair long and strong, Evert swears by Human Nature’s Natural Strengthening Conditioner in Cool Peppermint and Daily Hair Treatment.

“I don’t want to just give long hair,” she explains. “I want to give healthy hair.”

 

Reaping Long-Term Rewards

For women who may have reservations about donating hair, Evert admits that it is an investment that one must commit to before preparing themselves to let go. However as a repeated hair donor, she can attest that the rewards are worth it.

“It feels liberating and it makes me feel good knowing that somewhere in this world, I became an instrument of hope and happiness to a person’s life,” she smiles.

“Don’t think twice because it will grow back,” Evert adds encouragingly. “A few years of letting it grow back is nothing compared to a lifetime of confidence, hope, and happiness that you restore in these cancer patients.”

 

Do you want to give the gift of healthy hair? Share your inspirational hair story and photo in the comments section below and join us as Human Nature in partnership with Cuts Against Cancer and Louis Phillip Lee Premier Salon holds a hair drive on September 8, 2014! For more information, stay tuned!