Wigs For Kids, From The Heart

Chemotherapy is tough on anyone who has to go through it, but it's especially difficult for children.

The Early Show correspondent Debbye Turner met a hairstylist who uses his talent to make a difference for youngsters who need new hair.

Jeffrey Paul started Wigs for Kids 28 years ago, and heads the organization to this day. The group uses donated human hair to make wigs and gives them, for free, to kids going through chemotherapy, and others who need them.

Turner also got to know a girl who received one of Wigs for Kids' hairpieces.

Ironically, 9-year-old Taylor Wilhite donated her own hair a year before she was diagnosed with leukemia six months ago.

She's doing well now, following a bone marrow transplant, and says her new hair has boosted her spirits to no end.

Turner watched as Paul cut and styled Taylor's wig to look its best on her. It was, Turner observed, Taylor's chance to feel "normal" again.

Remembering when the family learned of Taylor's cancer, her mother, Amy Wilhite, told Turner, "We went from ear infection to leukemia that day."

Brian Wilhite, Taylor's father, recalls, "I was in denial -- until we actually were in the hospital in Cleveland for quite a few days." The facility is Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital.

Chemotherapy began days later, and through it all, Taylor, of Marblehead, Ohio, has held strong.

Asked by Turner what she thought when she learned she was sick, Taylor said, "It was just, 'You can get through it. You can do it.' "

Amy is in awe of her little girl: "I tell her, 'I'm supposed to support you through this.' And she -- she supports me a lot of times."

One tough part was when Taylor's beautiful hair started to fall out. Taylor cried, but not for long.

"It's not the hair that's important, it's the person inside you," Taylor remembers thinking.

She told Turner her long hair had been "fine," but she donated it because, "I'd rather give it to other kids who would need it."

Suddenly, Taylor was the one in need.

"If she's your child," Amy said, "you want her to be -- to be happy and comfortable wherever she's at, and not feel like she's being stared at. … You want her to feel … like a normal kid."

As Paul styled Taylor's wig, he remarked, "It's a lot more than just a haircut. It's -- it's the emotional part. It's the psychological part. … I want every kid, and that's been the goal since I began, that every kid who wants hair will have it. … And, although there may be still a disease they're fighting, they look themselves and live their life."

Paul is proud that the cost to the kids' families is zero. "No child has ever been charged. Ever, ever, ever."

Paul started Wigs for Kids after making a wig for a "special" cancer patient -- his niece. Today, the Rocky River, Ohio-based organization makes more than 100 personalized wigs for kids in need every year. It's made thousands of wigs over the years, and is in constant need of donations of human hair (ideally, a foot long or longer), and funds.

It takes 20 to 30 individual ponytails to make one wig, and the cost of the wigs is taken care of through donations.

On occasion, people send in money with their hair donations, but it's not required.

Wigs for Kids doesn't just help kids with cancer; it works with children who have alopecia, burns, accidents, progeria, trichotillomania (compulsive hair pulling), and other ailments and disorders.

Every wig is made from hair donated by people such as Rebecca Beaulieu, 11, who says hers was "down to my elbow."

When Rebecca cut her long hair, she was nervous, but happy to help someone else.

Says Rebecca, "If I didn't have hair, I'd want to be able to actually have a wig to put on, so I thought other people would probably feel like that, too."

After people donate hair, the ponytails are sorted, then sent to expert wigmakers who fashion the caps and attach, by hand, every single strand of hair, Turner explained.

For Paul, the smiles of kids such as Taylor provide moments "you can't even describe, but that moment when you see the smile, you see the movement (of the wigs' hair on kids' heads), the natural movement, I know, I touched (them) inside."

Turner wondered what Taylor would say to whoever donated the hair she got.

"I would say," Taylor replied, " 'Thank you. It helped a lot.' "