Wilton 5th Grader Three-peats a Locks of Love Hair Donation

One young Wilton girl has opened her heart not once, not twice, but three times by cutting and donating her hair to the Locks of Love organization, all in a generous effort to help other children who have lost their hair due to cancer or another cause.

Molly DeLuca, a Cider Mill 5th grader, had 11 inches cut off Wednesday afternoon, Jan. 14 at Ridgefield’s Adam Broderick salon, just as she did the two previous times, when she was in 3rd grade and 1st grade as well.

Cutting her hair short to help others, says Molly, is no big deal to her. “It’s only hair,” is what she told her mom. But she knows it is a big deal to a child who doesn’t have any hair.

“It felt like a nice idea, to help some girls or boys without hair to have hair,” she says. As a fifth grader, especially, she says she knows how important it is for kids to fit in.

Molly’s mom, Jessica, said this sacrifice for someone else is her daughter’s ‘thing.’

“She basically grows it to donate it.”

So where did the 11-year-old get the idea in the first place?

“When she was in first grade, there was an HBO documentary that both she and her sister watched. She had very long hair and she said, ‘Mommy, I want to do that,’ and I said, ‘Great!’” explained Jessica. “The day we did it, the show was on again, and it reinforced for her that she was doing something really nice for someone else.”

But then the driving force behind the idea struck a little closer to home:  about one year ago, Molly’s cousin Janey was diagnosed with an early stage of cancer. “She wanted to cut her hair then and donate it to Janey, because Janey was losing all her hair,” Jessica recalls. “She couldn’t, so she said she’d donate it to someone else.” [ed. note: Molly’s cousin is doing fine now, according to Jessica, who adds, “Thank goodness!”]

Of course, knowing how selfless her daughter has been makes Jessica very proud. “It’s wonderful. The second time she did it, it was so short. And she said, ‘It doesn’t matter. Somebody else can use it.’”

Molly says making the donations also makes her feel good.

“It feels good to help someone who is really sick, like when my cousin was really sick there was nothing we could do, so we sent her care packages.  I would have donated my hair to her but it wasn’t quite long enough and now thank goodness she doesn’t need it.  I wish no one did.”