Carolina Beautiful Week celebrates individual beauty
Students and faculty gathered in the Russell House Ballroom on Monday evening, took their seats and sectioned their hair into ponytails. The nervous and excited chatter died down as the song “Good Life” by OneRepublic began playing, the signal for family members and friends to begin carefully cutting off the ponytails of the participants. Instead of littering the grounds, as in any salon parlor, the ponytails were gathered and placed in zip-close bags to be given to Beautiful Lengths, a program that turns donated hair into wigs for cancer patients. It is the first organization to benefit from this year’s Carolina Beautiful: Celebrate Your Body Week.
USC is hosting Carolina Beautiful week from Feb. 20-24 as part of the National Eating Disorders Association’s (NEDA) annual awareness week.
“It’s all about celebrating ourselves and our individuality,” campus dietitian Kristen Tice said. “Our overarching goal is to help people celebrate their bodies and their differences.”
Tice said the program was implemented last year to promote a positive self-image.
“There are so many students who have eating disorders,” she said. “The best line of defense is prevention. We want to prevent body image issues from spiraling into an eating disorder.”
Student Health Services was excited to incorporate Beautiful Lengths into Carolina Beautiful week this year.
“It’s a great way to give back to women who are less fortunate and lose their hair to cancer,” Trice said. “The fact that people are willing to give up something that they hold dear to themselves for others is inspirational.”
Christina Galardi, a fourth-year public relations student, approached Student Health Services with the idea in November.
“I have donated my hair five times,” she said. “The first time was in fifth grade, and after that it started to be a cycle. When I was ready to donate my hair for the sixth time I decided I wanted to make it bigger. I had no idea it would be this successful.”
Beautiful Lengths partnered with Pantene and the American Cancer Society to offer cancer patients wigs for free. Janie Smith, mission manager of the American Cancer Society, explained the effects of hair loss on cancer patients.
“I see patients with cancer who have lost their hair every day, and I see how devastated they are,” she said. “In fact, 60 percent of women say that the hair loss is the most devastating part of cancer.”
Smith has seen how much donated hair impacts a cancer patient.
“I have women who sit in the chair and when I put the wig on their head they cry and say they feel normal again,” she said. “You never know how much your hair defines you until it’s gone.”
Participants shared their feelings about donating hair for the first time.
“It makes you feel good about yourself knowing that you’re helping someone,” said first-year exercise science student Janice Huynh.
Participants as young as eleven wanted to make a difference in someone’s life.
“When I was in fourth grade I donated hair,” fifth-grader Kiara Clark said. “My friend had cancer and now maybe she’ll be happy that someone donated hair.”
While cameras flashed, participants reached up toward their newly shorn hair and shared their sentiments towards Carolina Beautiful Week.
“I think it’s a really good idea,” Galardi said. “I think it’s great that we’re talking about body image for women, and hair is linked to body image. No matter how long their hair is, people should be proud of who they are.”
Since the focus of the week is building self-image, students shared their concepts of beauty.
“Beauty is about feeling good about you as a person,” Huynh said. “If you feel good about yourself then other people will think you’re beautiful.”