Getting a haircut is no big

deal.

Unless it's for the first time.

And you're 13 years old.

For Kim Bosecker, an eighth-grader

at Heritage School in Newnan, it was her first, not counting the time

she was 4 and had to have bubble gum scissored out. Otherwise, her smooth

dark hair has always fallen like a cape to her hips, trimmed only to keep

the ends neat.

Her parents used a yardstick

not long ago to measure it. It was between three and four feet from scalp

to ends. But earlier this month, 12 inches of Kim's hair was cut and bundled

off to Locks of Love, an organization that collects hair to handcraft

wigs valued at more than $3,000, to be given free to financially disadvantaged

children with medical hair loss.

Kim explains: "I heard

about Locks of Love in a magazine [her brother Gary's Guideposts for Kids]

and I was starting to run out of time to take care of my hair." The

Peachtree City teen washes her hair every other day, a process that, including

drying, takes up to 45 minutes.

What did her parents, Jo and

Scott Bosecker, say when she told them? "They didn't mind,"

Kim said without hesitation. "They said they want me to think about

it. I just wondered what my friends' reaction was going to be. I hadn't

told anyone but my best friend."

Asked why she had kept it so

long for so long, Kim replied: "I wanted to be different, and it

was an easy way to be different" at a school that requires the wearing

of uniforms. "I was noticed already for being short, the shortest

in class," she added.

There was one other person

Kim told: Anna Martin, 17, a senior at McIntosh who had been Kim's baby-sitter

when she was younger and remains a friend. Anna liked the idea and decided

her long blond hair should serve the same purpose, but had to wait until

after her advanced drama class finished Agatha Christie's "The Mouse

Trap."

She played Mrs. Boyle, with

her hair in a twist. The girls arranged to meet at Hair Cuttery in Peachtree

City's Braelinn Village Center on a Sunday afternoon to share the shearing.

Anna's hair has been cut, although

never short. "It's layered in the front I did that not too long ago,"

she said. "It's never been cut above the shoulders. My mom used to

do it, and every time she would trim my hair, she'd say, 'Now, Anna, here

goes your 3-year-old hair, there goes your 4-year-old hair,' and I cried.

And once she cut off eight inches; that was my 9-year-old hair."

At the Hair Cuttery the point

of no return was approaching. Neither girl hesitated, although Kim momentarily

covered her eyes with her hands when she felt the scissors start their

work. Her parents and brother watched stoically as Louise Corbitt snipped.

Anna's mother, Nancy Shepack,

seemed the likeliest to lose her composure as the process got under way.

"Oh, Anna," she repeated, as she watched her daughter change

her mind and indicate to Misty Arnold that she wanted her hair above her

collar instead of shoulder-length as planned.

It was over in moments, and

two 12-inch hanks of hair one brunette, one blonde were held up for the

waiting cameras. As Corbitt blow-dried Kim's remaining tresses, Kim's

hand searched in vain for the familiar mantle on her back.

She still has long hair, by

any standards, but the way she tossed it as she rose from the chair suggested

it feels much lighter now.

Anna emerged with a stylish

page-boy and looked radiant as she faced her mother. "Oh, Anna,"

was all Shepack could say.

Their hair, secured with a

rubber band, would be packaged and shipped per the instructions of the

Florida-based not-for-profit organization. Its Web site explains how real

human hair is manufactured into wigs that are custom-fit and vacuum-sealed

to the heads of youths 8-17 years of age who have lost their hair, usually

due to a dermatological disorder like alopecia areata.

According to the charity's

Web site, the cutting is usually done free of charge by stylists trained

in Locks of Love's techniques. Corbitt said she had cut the hair of several

girls in Jonesboro before coming to Peachtree City, and Arnold said she

has done "three or four" here.

Recipients of the hair are

more often girls than boys, an Internet press release said, simply because

it is more socially acceptable for boys to have short or no hair. Girls,

especially in their teens, may be psychologically devastated by hair loss

and having to wear ill-fitting artificial wigs.

An article in Pediatric Dermatology

says: "Children suffering from dermatological conditions which result

in permanent or long-term hair loss often have a hard time believing that

beauty truly is skin deep. First impressions and attraction are often

based on superficial appearance... [and] adolescents are particularly

sensitive about how they appear to others.

"Somebody with no hair

stands out and can be cruelly scapegoated."

Eighty percent of hair donors

are children themselves, "making this a charity where children have

the opportunity to help other children," says Locks of Love's web

site. A 14-year-old in Griffin said, "I'm even thinking about growing

my hair out long, and cutting it again and again so I can help more and

more people."

The web site bears poignant

testimony to why even adults give their hair to strangers. A woman from

Pennsylvania, recently diagnosed with cancer, realized she would probably

lose her treasured long red hair and decided to have it cut before she

began treatment.

"Doing this [donating

my hair before undergoing chemotherapy] is so positive for me," she

wrote. Another woman wrote, "When my mother passed away a few years

ago, I found these braids. They were mine, cut about 45 years ago. I now

have white hair, so it was fun to see what color my hair used to be. I

am so happy to find someone who can put the hair to good use."]

And a Florida mother: "I

have two sons, both with hair over 10 inches long... they both want to

donate their hair to your organization. We are of Native American heritage,

and consider our hair very, very sacred, so this will be quite an emotional

and very sacred gift from my sons."

In 2000, more than 200 recipients

benefited from donations like Anna's and Kim's, and Locks of Love states

its intentions never to have to turn away a child with medical hair loss.

Those who can afford to do so pay on a sliding scale, but those who cannot

receive wigs free of charge.

Costs involved in administration

and manufacture a process requiring three to four months are met by monetary

donations and occasionally the sale of unsuitable hair to other hairpiece

makers.