When Denise Southwood thinks of her son the words energetic, curious, and “10 going on 40” come to mind. That’s because it’s not every day that a 4 going on 5-year-old boy asks to grow out his hair for Pantene Beautiful Lengths — the program that makes wigs for cancer patients out of donated hair. But Colin did.
Denise thinks he was inspired by the St. Jude commercials he saw at the time, and his own family members — a grandmother, two great-grandparents, a teacher at school — were diagnosed with cancer. He spent the next five years growing his hair.
He was mistaken for a girl several times, Denise said, but her son handled himself with grace and stuck to his goal. She said: “I’m proud that he came to this decision by himself. I get choked up really thinking about it.”
And finally, after 5 years, the now 10-year-old decided his hair was long enough to cut. So he went to the salon and chopped off 13 inches to donate.
That day, he wrote a letter about his hair.
It said: Hi there, my name is Colin and I’m 10 years old. I’ve been growing my hair since I was 4 years old. I wondered what to do with it, and thought it would be a great idea to donate my hair to people and kids who lost their hair to cancer. I just can’t imagine how it feels like to lose your hair and have cancer.
So I just cut 13 inches of my hair so you can make beautiful wigs for those that need it. I hope they feel better and happier and don’t have to suffer the pain of cancer. Your’s truly, Colin Southwood
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