On September 2nd, Laura Wilkinson’s website announced that Laura had cut 8 inches of her hair off! She used the hair to make a donation to Pantene’s Beautiful Lengths. This organization, similar to Locks of Love or Wigs for Kids accepts donations of hair to make wigs for charitable causes.

The Pantene’s Beautiful Lengths website states:

A real-hair wig allows a woman to look in the mirror and at least see a familiar face while she fights to regain a sense of normalcy in her life.

The Entertainment Industry Foundation is pleased to collaborate with the American Cancer Society to distribute the Pantene Beautiful Lengths real-hair wigs for cancer patients around the nation. While this program aims to assist as many cancer patients as possible, ultimately the number of free wigs that become available will depend entirely on the number of ponytail donations received. (source)

It takes 6 ponytails to make a wig, and Pantene has received 115,395 ponytail donations so far!

This isn’t the first time Laura Wilkinson has donated her long blonde hair to a charitable cause. Following the 2004 Olympics, she cut off 12 inches of hair for Locks of Love!

This story also proves that, although world class divers practice in chlorine for 30 hours per week, they can still have beautiful hair!