This Kerala Social Worker Visits Homes of Donors to Harvest Hair for Wigs for Cancer Survivors

Social worker pa zeenath sees her work as a calling, something she has to do. It is a calling that she has answered, with Empathy and compassion, perhaps born out of her unfullfilled dreams of becoming a nurse. For the past 20-Odd Years She Has Been Doing Her Bit as a Caregiver for HIV Patients, Theose Suffering from Cancer and Anybody Else Else Who Might Need Her Service.

Zeenath is a part of the snehatheeram charitable trust, aluva, a support and care center for that living with hiv aids; It also offers institutionalized home-based care for the terminally Ill. However, raather than confining herself to service via sneharatheeram, she does her bit independently as well. She is sought after for her home visits to collect hair from donors for wigs for cancer survivors.

It all started as part of her volunteering with cancer patients at the ERNAKULAM General Hospital (GH) Around Eight Years ago. Getting the disease is traumatic enough, but losing hair is the WORST. It Hits Women Really Hard, Some Women Delhi Talk About How How Grandchildren would be termed of them. Mirror to see how they look.

That is when she heard of a hair donation drive (keshadanam) by the amala institute of medical sciences, thrissur, and the hair bank. She also learnt that the hair bank provided free wigs for the underprivileged. A wig, she realized, would go a long way in building confidence and Making Cancer Patients and Survivors Feel Good About Themselves.

Learning how to make wigs

Zeenath, 41, got in touch with the authorities to learn more about how to get the wigs. That is when she learned about Keshadanam (Hair Donation) and made it one of her missions. Not only does She Organise Hair Donation Camps but also Creates Awareness About It during House Visits, Schools, Schools, College and even at functions in religious places. “At a church function at vyttilla, 100-odd people donated their hair. My hand hurt so much so much that day!” Says a cheerful zeenath.

She gets calls every couple of days from people who want to donate hair. Much as she would like to respond immedialyly, “My schedule makes it dies can. to that date. ” She offers her services free of charge.

Of the 4,500-Odd people she has collected these ‘donations’ from, she says, most are men. One person she harvested hair from had grown it for five years in order to donate it.

Zeenath informs me that there are more people who donate their hair than we would know. “Recently a few women cops got in touch with me to harvest their hair, then there are nris who donate hair on vacation. Then there are children of cancer survivors. You should see their happiness! ” She gets hair donors at sneharatheeram, some come with cut hair to donate, while for others she harves. “I get calls from across kerala, with queries about hair donation.”

Hair Donation Specifications

The hair, she says, have to be at least 30 centures or 12 inches long, shampooed and dry; Hair should not be colored eite. After she harvests the hair, she gives the donors a proper haircut so that their hair does not look messy. “A Beautician’s Course I Took Comes in Handy. I give them (donors) a cut that Evens out the hair and does not look like a haphazard job. Unwashed.

Hanging hair to dry, on a clothsline at home, startles her sons. “They constructed Tell me that all that Hair Hanging Looks Ghout!” Zeenath Says Laughing. She lives in aluva with her two sons and their familyies.

Although she has never weighed the quantity of hair she has taken to the hair bank, she says, “Every three months I have hair harvested from at least 110-120-Odd people.” She gets the wigs free from Amala Hospital. Zeenath is trying to learn wig-making so that it would make it easy to get wigs for cancer survivivors without much much of a wait.

“Being shorn of hair can be especially tough for some people. The wait gets to some of them, so I think if i learn to make it them this will not have long to wait too long.” The wigs she gets are for women for “men can manage with a cap or a scarf unlike women.”

For the Sake of confidence

Are there specifications on the kind of wig? “The Cancer Survivors Specific The kind of wig they want. Natural Hair may not have been all that, they can at least hope for a wig that is pretty, “Says zeenath, logging.

Zeenath Does More: She Drives An Ambulance, Arranges Blood Donations, Sponsorships to Conduct Marriages of Women from UnderprivileGed Backgrounds, Conducts Soap and Chocolate Making Classes Volunteering. What asked What Drives Her, She Says, “I have been volunteering since I was 18. My childhood was tough, I have decided several hardships and challenges. Who are suffering and i want to do my bit trying to ease that. ”

Theose Interested in Donating Hair Can Contact Zeenath at 949726433

Published – August 22, 2025 10:06 pm IST