Kaplan hospital urges female MKs to donate hair
12/27/2012 03:31
The hospital's hair stylist Ben-Zikri will make wigs out of donated hair for cancer patients who lost their locks to chemotherapy.
Kaplan hospital stylist Eli Ben-Zikri. Photo: Courtesy Kaplan Medical Center
Female MKs and candidates for the 19th Knesset can help out cancer patients by
using their heads, says the Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot.
The
hospital is urging them to donate at least 30 cm. of their hair to the
hospital’s hair stylist, Eli Ben-Zikri, to make free wigs for those who have
lost their locks due to chemotherapy.
Ben-Zikri, himself a cancer
survivor, said on Wednesday that there is a “severe shortage” of donated hair
for making natural wigs for those whose hair falls out during
treatment.
“Women MKs and candidates [or any long-haired men] should be a
personal example and donate their hair to the cause,” he said.
As many of
the candidates this election are younger than in the past, Ben-Zikri noted that
if they donate their hair – which must not have been dyed or artificially curled
or straightened – it can be successfully used to make the wigs.
Even
those MKs who do not meet the criteria can come to the hospital’s hair salon and
promote the effort to donate natural hair.
Dr. Noa Ben Baruch, head of
the oncology institute at the Rehovot hospital, said that one event that causes
great emotional stress to cancer patients, especially women and children, is
losing their hair due to treatment.
“In most cases, they recover from the
tumor, but baldness can’t be hidden in any other way, and it harms
femininity.”
A voluntary organization called PELEH, made up of a team of
hairdressers and wig makers, create wigs as similar as possible to the patient’s
own hairstyle.
Hospital director-general Prof. Ya’acov Yahav said
that the hairdressing center was set up to benefit cancer patients and
cooperates on a regular basis with the oncology institute.
Free haircuts
by Ben-Zikri and his team to donate tresses can be arranged by calling 050-
679-8798.