Sometimes, the simplest gesture can stabilize the identity and build the confidence of someone who has cancer.

So much of the fight is degrading and de-humanizing, but it is the complete loss of one's hair that, for children, is the visible proof that you are not, and may never be, what you were before.

Generous women of every age and everywhere are doing something important to help others through this difficult time by letting their hair grow and then having it cut to send to an organization called "Locks of Love," a public non-profit organization that provides human hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children under the age of 18 who suffer from longterm hair loss from cancer or any medical condition.

Two Middleburg philanthropists who are looking glamorous with their shoulder-length locks will be making their contribution in a very short time. Both Pat Daly of Books & Crannies and Lisa Patterson of Mello Out knew first hand how devastating hair loss could be and wanted to do something to help.

Pat's grandmother died from breast cancer and she had a college roommate who suffered from the same fate so, when she met children at Green Hedges School in Vienna, Virginia who were letting their hair grow for a Locks of Love donation, she thought it was a wonderful idea.

"It wasn't until I met Paula at Blue, the Middleburg hair salon that I really understood all the details of making a donation," she explained, "...she has often helped clients with this kind of a donation."

"My hair is long enough now to cut, but I'm going to let it grow a few inches more so I have a little left when Paula cuts it."

"When Lisa Patterson learned that a friend she'd met in Germany had been told she had breast cancer, her daughter wanted to do something to help. I remember being so impressed when her daughter decided to let her hair grow for Locks of Love to help children with cancer, and when Pat told me she was doing the same thing, I decided right away that I could help too."

Patterson also spoke with Paula at Blue, about how to 'do everything right,' to make a donation of human hair to Locks of Love.

"Paula knew all about the organization and was terrificially supportive. She told me I would need to let it grow until it reached ten inches, and offered to take care of it until it was long enough to cut and send to them," Lisa said.

Both Pat and Lisa emphasized that they each have many of my friends and friends of friends who have cancer and that it makes me feel great to be able to help."

For more information about Locks of Love, please visit www.locksoflove.org.