Turua schoolgirl Arya Sutherland bucked tradition on her 10th birthday when she decided she would be the one doing the giving.
The birthday girl spent the beginning of her party perched on a tall stool in the backyard, friends and family watching in silence as her long, wavy tresses were carefully portioned into sections in preparation for hairdresser friend Caitlin Taipari’s silver scissors.
Arya was donating her hair, to be made into a wig for cancer patients.
The idea was entirely her own.
“I just want to do this for a good cause because heaps of our friends and family have died from cancer, and have cancer, and I’ve wanted to do this for ages,” Arya told The Profile.
“I thought it’d be a good thing to do on my 10th birthday.”
The party doubled as a fundraising event, with Arya collecting sponsorships to cut her hair.
She raised just over $1000, which will be donated to the Cancer Society.
Around 30 family members, close friends, and Arya’s teachers and school principal were at the party to witness Arya’s haircut.
Her mum, Rachael Wenzlick, said there were at least 40 more people who were unable to make the event but who donated money to Arya’s fundraising page.
“All these people here have known Arya for ages… they all think so highly of her,” Rachael said.
“It is a big deal, cutting off all her hair, because she’s been growing it for ages and she loves her hair so much.
“Cancer has affected a lot of our family and friends… we’ve had a few friends up at Starship and her best friend at the moment has a mass on her brain, and we don’t know if that’s cancerous either, so it’s something we’ve just been talking about the last few months.”
In preparation for her donation, Arya treated her locks with a hair mask and slept on a satin pillowcase. Her hair was measured – donated hair needs to be at least 35 centimetres long – and a new, shorter haircut decided on.
“[She was] excited and nervous,” Rachael said of the days beforehand.
“Especially when we measured it again, and it wasn’t as long as we thought.
“I thought she would go, ‘nah, I don’t want to do it’. But she was like, ‘oh, well, it’ll grow back. Someone’s going to enjoy my hair’.”
On the day, family members were invited to help Arya with her donation. Sections of her hair were cut by her mother, grandfather, and brother, with Caitlin’s guidance.
There was a round of applause as Arya’s final ponytail was tucked away safely in a plastic bag, ready for mailing to the donation centre. Her loose ends were quickly tidied up, leaving Arya with a stylish pixie cut and a sense of achievement.
“It’s a very selfless thing to do,” Caitlin said.
