Tignanelli's selfless act

It took just four quick snips with his scissors and Mark of Oaks Hair Salon was handing Lauren Tignanelli her 12-inch ponytail.

In today's society where clothes and hair are as important for a 17-year-old girl as air and food one is hard pressed to find a girl who would willingly give up her lovely tresses for anything, but that is exactly what Lauren Tignanelli did Friday.

Tignanelli, 17, paid a visit to Oaks Hair Salon and snipped off her 12-inch pony tail and donated it to the Angel Hair for Kids program.

The program is a directive of A Child’s Voice Foundation and provides wigs and hair loss solutions at no cost to financially disadvantaged children in Canada who have lost their hair due to a medical condition or treatment.

Tignanelli says she did for kids living with cancer and was inspired by her mother's friends and her teachers who over the years have made that selfless act. She decided this was the time she stepped up to help make a child feel better.

“I thought is was a really nice thing to do and I don't really need it,” she says.

“Like when I cut my hair it just kind of goes in the garbage, so I figured if your going to grow your hair out you might as well make it go somewhere and make it do something.”

The St. Joseph-Scollard Hall student says it is different feeling having no hair but she will get used to it quickly.

“It's a little weird to feel it, but I will get used to it and least I know my hair is going to good use so it's all good.”

According to the Angel Hair for Kids website it takes 10-12 donated ponytails to make one hair prosthesis and $800 to $1000 is budgeted by the foundation to cover manufacturing and related costs.