Local student in giving spirit

DELAVAN — Fontana Elementary fourth-grader Madelyn Bosshart may be only 9, but her empathy and desire to put others first is well beyond her years.

Late last week, Madelyn sat calmly at Attitudes, a hair salon in downtown Delavan. As she brushed her 17-inch long, sandy blonde hair out of her eyes and tucked it behind her ears, she talked about why she was giving it up for Locks of Love.

"My friend's mom has a very serious kind of cancer and may pass in a couple weeks," she said. "She lost all her hair and I don't want little girls to feel sad and left out because all the other girls have hair. I want to give little girls, like some of my friends, the hair they need."

Locks of Love is an organization that collects hair donations and makes them into hairpieces for children who suffer from long-term hair loss. A hair donation to Locks of Love must be at least 10 inches and it takes about six to 10 donated ponytails to make one hairpiece.

Thanks to Madelyn, Locks of Love is one ponytail closer to making another hairpiece for a child in need.

Madelyn's idea to help through the donation didn't surprise her teacher, Kim Epping, one bit. Madelyn has made an impact at the school even though this is just her first year in Fontana. Epping said Madelyn never wants anyone to be left out, so she ensures to involve everyone in activities. Because of that attitude, she has made many friends in class.

"She is one of the most unselfish students I have ever met," Epping said. "She puts others before herself all the time. When she said she was doing this, it didn't surprise me at all. She always wants to help people and that is rare at this age. You just don't see that."

Epping remembers the first time she met Madelyn.

"It was an open house and she came bouncing into the room with a smile and introduced herself," Epping said. "That smile has never left her face."

For a short time as Madelyn sat in the chair having 10 inches of her hair chopped off, the smile wasn't as apparent. Before hopping into the chair, Madelyn said she wasn't scared about having her hair cut. Rather, she said she was excited and had told all her friends about it.

   

After Attitudes' hairstylist and co-owner Gale Galvin completed the cuts for the Lock of Love, Madelyn's signature smile quickly returned.

"I like it, I like it," Madelyn said with a beaming smile staring at herself in the mirror as Galvin put on the finishing touches of her new hairstyle. "It's cute. I don't have much to brush."

Epping agreed. She said she loved Madelyn's new hairdo.

"She never had time for her hair anyway," Epping said. "She just doesn't care about things like that."

As she held in a ponytail the hair just cut off her head, Madelyn said she thought there would be more. But she said she was happy to help out.

Since the nonprofit Locks of Love organization was created, thousands of children have been helped. Locks of Love has supplied children with hairpieces in all 50 states and Canada.

There are two main diseases that cause long-term hair loss in children.

The largest number of children helped by Locks of Love have alopecia, an autoimmune disorder that causes the hair follicles to shut down. The disease has varying degrees and affects 4.7 million people in the United States alone. There currently is no known cure for alopecia.

Children with cancer is the second highest percentage of recipients. Every year, approximately 2,200 people under the age of 20, are diagnosed with brain tumors. Radiation treatment to the brain stem as a treatment for cancer can cause permanent hair loss. Chemotherapy also can cause hair loss.

How Stress Causes Hair Loss?

The problem of thinning hair may be caused by a genetic predisposition that comes from a family history of thinning hair. Health problems such as Hyperthyroid or Hypothyroid conditions;medications such as chemotherapy, any hormone replacement medications including birth controlpills are culprits often overlooked.

It is normal to shed some hair each day as part of this cycle. However, some people may experience excessive (more than normal) hair loss. Hair loss of this type can affect men, women and children.

Are you Stressed?

Thinning hair can also be attributed to stress and trauma that can cause constriction of blood supply and poor vitamin assimilation to the scalp and hair. Or, simply from poor nutrition and diet that can include a high consumption of animal fat, high protein and fad diets. Even external environmental toxins and pollutants, such as chlorine, metals, minerals and water pollution cannot be ignored. All these factors can be causing your clients' hair to look thinner.

Under a microscope

The hardening prevents hair growth. The hair cycle slowly becomes disrupted and more hair is shed than normal. In time hair growth stops completely and baldness results. Here you see an example of a hair follicle as seen under a microscope.

Age and hormones

Most people naturally experience some hair loss as they get older. But age, changing hormones and heredity cause some to lose more hair than others.

 Female-pattern baldness starts with the replacement hairs becoming progressively finer and shorter. They can also become almost transparent.

It has been recorded that about 50 percent of women experience hair loss have female-pattern baldness! Unfortunately, it is often permanent just as in men. Not all hair thinning and loss must be permanent. There has been various cases of peri menopausal women, for example, experiencing thinning and lost hair who, once their hormone levels become balanced, can experience the thickness of previously thinning and the regrowth of lost hair that occurred during the ebbing and flowing hormonal years.

What Actually Causes Hair Loss In Guys?

Hair thinning is a thing that’s going to affect most men in due course throughout their lives. Mainly because you won’t lose some or all of your hair in your 20's or 30's does not imply that you won’t lose a number of the hair later. for that matter greater than 85% in all men will be affected from hairloss somewhat throughout their life – it is not an instance of “if” but “when”. for many guys this pattern of balding starting for their later teen years and then for others they might not experience any volume of hair thinning until they’re well in 60s. there isn’t any specific date when the head of hair loss will start.

Now although there isn’t a specific date for your baldness to begin with there usually is usually a cause that could be consistent to all men dealing with the loss of hair. At the conclusion of the afternoon the main cause for everyday sort of hairloss that face men is hormonal anyway. whenever a child grows into his teenage years his body will begin producing more testosterone. With only a certain age, that varies from one man to another, this normal testosterone gets transformed into a more potent version called dihydrotestosterone (DHT). when it changes into such a hormone it may then start causing major alterations in that guy’s body and in many cases is definitely the first step in hair loss becoming a natural part of that person’s everyday life.

DHT in the male body could potentially cause a procedure called miniaturization in the strands of hair therefore the hair follicles learn to grow shorter and finer hair followed by stop producing hair altogether. Similar strands of basically go dormant so when they stop producing hair bald and thinning patches are displayed on the scalp of a typical man in that stage of hairloss.

The great thing is that there is a whole array of new hairloss treatments available that will handle DHT including Propecia. and in combining treatments as being a regimen these DHT treatments can stop including turn back hairloss having happened – and some amazing causes certain instances. So don’t lose heart when considering stopping your hairloss then there’s new treatments kicking off at all times.