Many hair salons this week are cutting long hair and donating it to children who have lost their hair to chemotherapy.

News Specialist Stacey Butler found one hair stylist in Logan who got more than she bargained for from a 92 year old woman.

It began with a phone call.

An elderly woman asked a Logan salon owner if she could donate her hair to the program, Locks of Love.

Sherisse Jamison/Salon Owner: "I THOUGHT, THAT'S KIND OF WEIRD THAT SHE WOULD WANT TO DONATE GREY HAIR, 'CAUSE I COULD TELL SHE WAS OLD."

Stacey Butler/Eyewitness News: "A LITTLE UNCERTAIN- THE OWNER OF THE SALON DECIDED SHE WOULD GO PICK UP THE HAIR, AND WAS SURPRISED BY WHAT WAS WAITING FOR HER."

Sherisse Jamison/Salon Owner: "I THOUGHT WOW, THIS IS AN OLD BOX. YOU CAN TELL IT'S OLD."

Inside-- 24 inches of thick golden brown hair that looked like it had been cut yesterday.

Only 92 year old Ruth Stoddart cut it back in 1926.

Ruth Stoddart/Donated her hair: "I THINK BECAUSE I WAS PROBABLY THE LAST GIRL IN SCHOOL TO HAVE LONG HAIR."

Sixteen years old, Ruth wanted the fashionable bob.

So she paid fifty cents to have a barber cut it.

Ruth has kept her hair.

Ruth Stoddart/Donated her hair: "IT SEEMED NO REASON TO THROW IT AWAY."

Tucked in this box wrapped in the March 10, 1926 edition of the Kansas City Star.

Until she saw this Logan newspaper article on a program that collects long hair to make wigs for cancer patients.

Ruth Stoddart/Donated her hair: "I HOPE THEY'LL BE ABLE TO USE THE HAIR FOR SOME CHILD WHO NEEDS IT."

Ruth admits when she opened the precious box, memories flooded back.

"I SAT IN FRONT OF MY HUSBAND IN LATIN CLASS AND HE USED TO PUT MY BRAIDS IN THE INKWELL."

"I SUPPOSE THAT WAS THE BEGINNING OF OUR RELATIONSHIP."

Now 78 years later, the auburn pig tails that Ruth's late husband dipped in inkwells will crown the head of another girl.

By the way, salons that participate in the Locks of Love Program offer a free haircut if you donate more than ten inches of hair.

April 16, 2002