At the Kannisto family, no visits were made to the barber and hairdresser for quite a while. Loving mom Phoebe Kannisto agreed with her six sons that they’d hold off on getting a haircut, and let their hair grow instead.
Phoebe and her six sons wanted to grow their hair so that they could donate it to children in need who are suffering from cancer.
The family from Buffalo, New York has been ‘saving’ as much hair as possible and were able to donate a whopping 17 feet of hair to the Children with Hair Loss non-profit organization.
Ten-year-old Andre, eight-year-old twins Silas and Emerson and 5-year-old triplets Herbie, Reed and Dexter all let their hair grow. The family also has an adorable 2-year-old daughter Marah Taylor.
Donating hair to the organization is a personal matter for the whole family, as Phoebe explained to the Huffington Post.
“Three years ago, my friend lost her son to cancer,” Phoebe said. “He was a twin and very close in age to my twins. On the first anniversary of his passing, my three oldest boys donated their hair in his memory. Since their donation two years ago, our lives have continued to be touched by cancer. It’s everywhere. My boys want to help, and donating their hair is how they do it.”
It also definitely wasn’t the first time that the Kannisto family donated their hair for people in need. Ever since she was a teen, Phoebe had been donating strings of her hair on and off.
Her last donation was a while ago in 2014, but her sons Andre, Silas, and Emerson continued the tradition in 2015. It was only recently that the Phoebe and all of her seven sons could participate in the lengthy hair donation.
Phoebe had waited for quite a long time until everyone’s hair was just long enough for the minimal contribution length.
“Obviously, everyone’s hair grows at different rates,” she said. “So it took quite some time for everyone to be ready.”
Little Andre had to wait almost a year for his hair to grow enough, but it pales in comparison to the two years waiting time for the twins and five years for the triplets. A dedicated family for a noble cause.
Even though their sister wasn’t able to donate a piece of her hair this time because it was still too short, Marah Taylor also said that she wants to donate hair the next time as well.
“She watched in awe,” Phoebe said. “[Her brothers] are great role models.”
When the family went to the Hizair Hair Salon to cut their hair, the salon simply refused to accept payments after they heard the family’s story and gave them all a haircut after hours.
“They insisted on donating their time since we were donating our hair,” she said.
Phoebe couldn’t be any prouder of her children.
“I love that they want to help other children,” Phoebe concludes. “They’re already making predictions on how long it will take them to grow their hair out to donate again.”
What a fantastic family!
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Source: Huffington Post
