If it bothers you, and you can do something (within the law),  do something. Stop waiting for someone else- CT

In 2017 my son (mixed race- afro caucasian) wanted to donate his long hair to Little Princess Trust like he had seen other kids do. To our surprise, we were told they could accept it because of their wig making processes- i hid the hair from him and threw it away secretly.  3 years later in 2020, my son's hair was cut again and he thought we were donating it- I tried to donate it again to Little Princess Trust and was told no. This time, I decided i wasn't going to throw it away- frankly, I didn't have the heart to and i was determined to prove it could be done. My experience of having wigs etc made for various TV programs told me that if i could turn my son's hair into hair wefts, then just like normal wigs, my wig makers could make it into wigs.

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So I got out my abandoned sewing machine Christmas gift- I can't sew for toffee by the way but nothing like determination and indignation to sharpen your focus. I tried for 2 hrs and ran out of thread. I called for back-up- my then assistant, who could sew. In my living room, in 4 hours, we turned my son's hair locks into hair wefts. I sent it off to my wig maker and a week later received the first wig made out of my son's afro hair donation! I was so proud of that wig.

I realised that there must be many like me/ my son. And there must be many kids who also had hair loss and wanted hair similar to what they used to have. So instead of leaving it there, I set up Curly Wigs For Kids- the UK's first donation site for curly hair. That's also the wig on the landing page.

Within a few weeks enquiries came pouring in. We soon donated the wig we'd made. Then  Louise Sayers, a BBC newsround journalist contacted me via the website because they had a child with 4c hair (afro hair falls mainly into 4a, 4b & 4c hair types) who was desperate to donate their hair and hadn’t been successful with Little Princess Trust. They got in touch to see if the child could donate the hair via CurlyWigsForKids. They relayed this to Little Princess Trust too and the (relatively new) CEO of Little Princess Trust asked if I'd be willing to speak to him. This journalist became instrumental in introducing us. Phil was keen to discover how I made the afro hair wigs I was making. In full credit to Phil, he persisted in scheduling a call -despite the challenges posed by my filming schedules and time difference whilst I was in Canada, and we had long conversations on the technicalities. We discussed the difficulties Little Princess had had in the past in processing Afro hair and we agreed that perhaps afro hair required a different processing technique to Caucasian hair.

Phil assured me that one of the things he was keen to achieve since taking leadership at Little Princess Trust is to be more inclusive with afro hair. 

True to his word, Phil notified me weeks later that they had successfully processed afro hair donations using the method I shared! Upon this, we decided I would signpost all afro hair enquiries to Little Prices Trust.

Hair is not my main business and I am glad to handover all Afro hair donations and enquiries to the capable hands of Little Princess Trust- I still have not mastered the sewing machine. To mark this huge step in inclusivity, I was asked to be (and accepted) a Celebrity Ambassadorship of Little Princess Trust.

I believe progress is working together to change things one step at a time. Teams are redefined not based on the colour of the skin, but on the choices we make to make the world fairer and more equal. There is no them, or us, there’s only progress, or lack thereof. With large organisations, all it takes is one person determined to ask questions and make a difference

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Why am I sharing this story now- 3 years later? Because everyday I meet people who feel helpless because they don't have the right connections or qualifications to do what they really feel fired up about. To them I say, use what you have, and

... Just Begin.

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CT