WNCC volleyball coach donates her hair to Locks of Love

Western Nebraska Community College volleyball coach Giovana Melo is sporting a new look after donating 11 inches of her hair to the Locks of Love national program.                  Melo, who guided the Cougars to the NJCAA national championship in November, told the team  while at the NJCAA national tournament that if they won the title she would cut her hair short once again.
                “I kept looking on the Internet pages everyday on the Locks of Love webpage, and I said I wanted to do it more and more,” she said. “I decided to do it [give the hair to the organization] because I thought it would be a good cause.”
                Melo said the last time she had short hair was her sophomore year in college in 2002-03 when she was a blonde setter for the WNCC Cougar volleyball team. After that, she let her hair grow for the next seven years.
                Monday evening everything changed. She lived up to her promise to the team at Spa by TLC. In front of her players, who counted down to the actually cutting, Melo had 11-inches cut off her hair. The only thing she didn’t do was go back to her hair color back when she was a sophomore at WNCC.
                Melo said that she was scared to see what she would look like with short hair again.
                “Yes, I was very scared when they cut it,” she said.
                The players, however, said that it is a good sacrifice for winning the national title. They also were picking out different short hairstyles for their coach.
                “I think it is a good sacrifice for winning the national championship,” freshman middle hitter Lais Soares said. “But, I think she should have shaved it.”
                Lindsey Gonzalez, assistant coach, said that Melo should enjoy her new look.
                “It will be pretty easy to take care of,” she said. “But, she is going to get irritated because it is short now.”
                Melo said that she will have to come up with something different the next time they win a national title.
                “I won’t shave it if we win another national title,” she said. “I will have to find something else to do.”
                The Locks of Love is a public non-profit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children in the United States and Canada under the age of 21 suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis. The organization meets a unique need for children by using donated hair to create the highest quality hair prosthetics.

Most of the children helped by Locks of Love have lost their hair due to a medical condition called alopecia areata, which has no known cause or cure.

The organization, which was founded in 1998, goes through thousands of bundles of hair each year, which is then shipped to the manufacture to make the wig.