MARYLAND BOY GREW HAIR 2 YEARS FOR KIDS WITH CANCER
A Maryland boy spent two years growing his hair so it could become wigs for kids with cancer. The Thomas Moore hair donation turned into a viral moment when his aunt shared a before-and-after photo online.
Thomas Moore, 8, finally got the haircut on September 10, 2016. Bored Panda reported the hair was enough to make three wigs for children who lose their hair during chemotherapy.
His aunt, Amber Ray, posted the before-and-after photo of Thomas on Twitter with a short message:
my nephew grew his hair out for two years to donate to kids with cancer ðŸ˜
Why he started
The idea came when Thomas saw his mother watching a Facebook video about a girl who had lost her hair to cancer.
His mother, Angie Pulos, explained cancer and how treatment can make hair fall out, Your Daily Dish reported.
Thomas decided he would grow his own hair out to help kids who lose theirs during chemo.
He never picked a target length. BuzzFeed quoted him as saying he “just wanted it to be long enough to make the girl feel happy.”
Cornrows and a hot head
Two years is a long time to manage a growing head of hair, and Ray said the family had to get creative.
“It started off just fine when his hair was shorter,” Ray said in an interview.
“But as the afro grew, they had to cornrow it to keep it nice and tame,” she said.
Thanh Niên reported the hair was hot and inconvenient to manage, and that Thomas wore it braided while it grew.
What happened next
After the haircut, Thomas felt good about it and hoped it would make other people happy.
Ray and Thomas were both surprised the tweet went viral and drew such a warm response. They called the reaction “a good thing.”
Readers piled on with thanks and praise for the boy’s kindness, Portal O São Gonçalo reported.
Ray’s before-and-after photo of Thomas went up on Twitter on September 11, 2016, and it passed 57,000 retweets.
