Herb Benham: 6-year-old says goodbye to hair, hello to altruism
| Monday, Jun 29 2009 04:37 PM
Last Updated Monday, Jun 29 2009 06:12 PM
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Casey Christie / The Californian Niki Lynn Hallmark, 6, left, takes a look in the mirror after having her haircut, Saturday, by stylist, Mindy Yaeck, at Side Street Salon in the Rosedale area. Hallmark was donating her long hair to an organization that provides hair to cancer patients and others in need.
Casey Christie / The Californian Niki Lynn Hallmark, 6, left, is ready to have her hair cut from stylist, Mindy Yaeck, Saturday, at Side Street Salon in the Rosedale area. Hallmark is donating her hair to an organization that provides hair to cancer patients and others in need.
Casey Christie / The Californian Niki Lynn Hallmark, 6, left, takes a look in the mirror after having her haircut, Saturday, by stylist, Mindy Yaeck, at Side Street Salon in the Rosedale area. Hallmark was donating her long hair to an organization that provides hair to cancer patients and others in need.
Now that's some pretty hair.
Luckily for the hair-free world (and perhaps some young cancer patients),there was plenty of Niki Lynn Hallmark's chestnut mane to go around Saturday.
The 61/2-year-old soon-to-be-second-grader -- accompanied by her mother, Nicki Hallmark, her sister Megan, and her grandmother Cathy Taylor -- marched into the Side Street Salon in Rosedale, sat bravely in hairdresser's Mindy Yaeck's chair, and had 15 inches of her hair lopped off.
The biggest obstacle standing in the way of Niki Lynn's good deed? Her dad, Michael. He couldn't bear to watch Yaeck snap a rubber band around his baby girl's hair, casually pick up a pair of scissors and then in less time than it takes to change a song on your iPod, snip off 61/2 years of hair that reached the middle of Niki Lynn's backside.
"He was against the idea to begin with," said Nicki of her husband. "Once she was OK with it, he was too."
This was no fashion move for a little girl who dabbles in modeling; nor was it a concession to summer heat. This was a nod to community service. Niki Lynn is donating her strands to Locks of Love , an organization that provides hairpieces to children under 18 who have lost their hair due to sickness or disease. Most wigs are made for adults and what self-respecting child wants to look like their mother (at least before they graduate from high school). Also, wigs are expensive.
There aren't too many 6-year-olds (especially one, says her grandmother, who walks a fine line between believing in herself and bragging) who wake up one day and say, "I'm going to cut off my hair so someone else can look pretty."
And Niki Lynn is no exception. It was all Mom's idea, but she's just doing what generations of parents have done -- teaching their children to do a good thing and not think of themselves every waking second of the day.
"At first, she thought we were getting rid of her hair (Locks of Love requires at least 10 inches of hair, tip to tip) and that she was going to be bald," Nicki said. "She didn't want to do it."
When her mother assured her that she wouldn't have to spend the rest of her life without hair, Niki said yes. The Hallmarks didn't even have to resort to a bribe. Other than cutting her bangs herself, Saturday was the first hair cut for the Sandrini Elementary pupil, who recently went from being a Daisy to a Brownie in the Scouting hierarchy.
She couldn't have been cuter. For parents and grandparents, it's one of those, "please don't grow up" moments. Within minutes, Yaeck, who is Niki Lynn's third cousin, had fashioned a bob that made her young client look as if she had emerged from the womb with every hair in place.
Niki Lynn never moved. She sat transfixed, perhaps both by the heroism of her deed and her beaming face.
Saturday was her first act of public unselfishness. Like most of us, she improves the world by choosing to repeat it.
