Tuesday 23 / April / 2024
Muscat: You can now donate your hair to help make wigs for people battling cancer, thanks to 24-year-old Wedyan Matar, who started Khosal, an organisation in Oman that collects hair.
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Matar began thinking about donating hair when she had cut a large portion of her hair last year and realised that it felt “wrong to throw all that hair away”.
“I started looking for organisations where I could donate hair in the Sultanate, but I did not find any. After researching for a long time, I found associations that provide this service abroad, so I decided to launch this initiative — Khosal — in Oman,” said Matar.
The campaign, according to Matar, began in October 2018. She said, “Through the campaign, we provide an opportunity for people who want to donate their hair. We also coordinate with institutions that make wigs for people battling cancer around the world.”
The campaign that took off in 2018 is gaining traction, however, Matar says that it wasn’t always smooth sailing. “In the beginning, some people were hesitant because they worried they might be violating religious laws, but after consulting a few sheikhs, they were told that this sort of a donation is allowed,” says Matar.
While the organisation is doing great work, Matar says that they can’t afford the cost of manufacturing wigs in Oman, something they wanted to work towards.
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“As a voluntary initiative, we cannot afford the cost of manufacturing wigs. Several companies told us that if we want to manufacture wigs for children in the Sultanate, we will have to provide financial support. But we’re not able to do that,” she said.
“The team created several products to fund our campaign, some shops cooperated with us and allocated 20 per cent of their profits to the campaign,” she added.
Khosal has a 20-member team across the Sultanate which helps with collecting hair. In addition to that, there are six salons that help with this campaign.
Muna Al Khanjari, the owner of Sabaya salon, collaborated with Matar by reducing the fee for haircuts, in order to encourage more women to donate.
“Since we announced the campaign, several girls were eager to donate, and some women even asked if they could donate money,” Al Khanjari said.
In the first month of the campaign, Al Khanjari managed to collect 50 sets of hair from donors and by the first half of the second month, 30 women donated hair.
Al Khanjari added. “It is nice to raise awareness about this kind of donation because many people wonder how their hair can be useful.”People who want to donate hair can get in touch with the organisation on Twitter: Khosal @5o9lll / Instagram: @5o9ll1.
