PRINCETON, Minn. - For most 7-year-old boys, getting a haircut is not that big a deal.
Jadon Lind's recent trip to the barber stands as the exception.
On January 20, the nearly 7-year-old Jadon went in for his first haircut in two years, losing 10 inches off his luxurious mane. The trim, and the long locks weren't about vanity... they were about helping people with cancer feel whole.
A month shy of his 5th birthday, Jadon was watching a story on KARE 11 about a boy named Tyler Plogger who had grown his hair for Locks of Love. Jadon's mom recalls him running into the kitchen and saying he wanted to do the same thing.
For some kids such notions don't last too long: Not Jadon. He kept growing his hair out until it would yield the 10 inches required to donate to Locks of Love. On January 20 he and his mom went to The Cutting Edge Salon in Princeton and Stylist Micki Loeffler cut his hair off in long, thick ponytails.
Three days later Jadon's teachers and classmates were floored when he came back to school with short hair that would have looked at home back in the 1950s. Many said they wouldn't have recognized him had he not been standing next to his mom.
While being able to donate hair that will be made into a wig for a cancer patient has been a joy, the process of growing it out wasn't easy. People constantly mistook him for a girl, and other kids teased him. His mom Jaime says any time someone called him a girl Jadon would correct them, and say "I'm growing out my hair for those girls who don't have any hair because of cancer."
Jaime Lind also says she doubted herself occasionally over those two years, wondering if her son's appearance reflected badly on her as a parent. Jadon's resolve eased those doubts, and helped strengthen her as well.
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