Ideal Bite

You can also donate your hair to Beautiful Lengths. This organization gives away wigs to women who have lost their hair due to chemotherapy. They also give them away for free. Locks of Love charges families for the wigs. They also sell extra hair for profit.

I'm the ultimate in Recycling! I am the proud recepient of two organs, a kidney and a pancreas due to damage from Type 1 Diabetes. I no longer have diabetes or have to take shots of insulin. Instead I take medications which there is no pain involved! There were 4 other people who also got organs from my one donor. One individual can save the lives of many. If you do nothing else, save a life of someone else. Bless you, Debbie

It's a common misconception that Locks of Love is just for kids with cancer. I suffer from an autoimmune disease Alopecia, which causes varying degrees of hair loss. I luckily am only a mild sufferer and grow my hair out until I chop it and donate to Locks of Love...in hopes another alopecia (or cancer...or other) sufferer benefits!

St. Baldrick's is the world's largest volunteer-driven fundraising event for childhood cancer research. Thousands of volunteers shave their heads in solidarity of children with cancer, while requesting donations of support from friends and family.

If you have more time to spare, you can be a pheresis donor. Instead of giving a pint of whole blood, you donate a unit of red cells and/or platelets on a special machine that draws out blood, separates out the desired components, and puts the rest back. Hospitals and blood centers have a harder time getting platelets than whole blood because the process takes longer (and the platelets don't keep as long in storage), so they will sometimes offer cool incentives to those who sign up for pheresis. My husband has earned lots of gift cards this way. Also, since your body regenerates platelets faster than whole blood, you can donate more often this way--every four weeks instead of every eight.

All of these things end up wasting more in the long run. You'll end up using more shampoo and using a lot more water in order to wait for your hair to get to the required 10 inches. As far as organ donation goes, you'll use energy trying to keep the person alive so the organ is usable, then usually have to trasport it, then energy and medicine to keep the recipient alive. How is this eco-friendly? Just because and organization is charitable, does not mean it helps the environment.

Wow, that last comment was really lame. Maybe you need to consider the bigger picture, NG.

www.matchingdonors.com In the United States, 19 people die each day waiting for an organ transplant—most of them waiting for kidneys. MatchingDonors.com has become the most successful nonprofit organization that is improving those odds by finding living altruistic donors for patients needing transplants. MatchingDonors.com may be able to help patients and donors with transplant related expenses not covered by insurance.

Locks of love isn't a very good company. In the past decade they've only made around 2000 wigs, the majority of donated hair is sold. They also require families to pay, and children to write essays and get letters of recommendation. Too many hoops for sick kids to go through. Beautiful lengths is a better program.

Great tip! I have been donating blood for nearly 10 years, every 56 days. I don't like it. I am anemic, so I have to take two days to prepare. I eat a lot of foods rich in iron, cut down on alcohol, drink plenty of water get plenty of rest. Then, two days later I can get back in my normal routine. I don't like it, but it is too difficult to stuff a $100 bill up someone's vein when they are in need of blood. ; )