What Happens to Your Hair After You Donate?
The journey from your ponytail to a life‑changing wig.
When you donate your hair to Hair We Share, you’re doing something extraordinary. You’re giving a piece of yourself to someone facing one of the hardest moments of their life. But what actually happens next? How does your ponytail become a custom wig that restores confidence and dignity?
Let’s take you behind the scenes.
1. Your Ponytail Arrives in Our Mailroom
When your ponytail arrives, our mailroom team opens it and logs it into our database. From there, it’s separated into two categories:
Ponytail Tracking donations (these are funded and ready for processing)
Standard hair donations (these wait for sponsorship before moving forward)
Ponytail Tracking donations go straight to our sorting room, where the wig‑making journey begins.
Every ponytail is opened, logged, and handled with care the moment it arrives. Pictured: our co‑founder Dean.
2. Sorting & Matching
In our sorting room, groups of developmentally disabled adults help prepare each ponytail for the wig‑making process. This work is meaningful, hands‑on, and deeply valued — and their care shows in every step.
Your hair is sorted by:
Color
Length
Texture
Because each wig requires multiple ponytails, your donation is carefully matched with others to create a natural, seamless look. This is where your hair begins its transformation from a single ponytail into part of a life‑changing wig.
Our volunteers carefully sort each ponytail by color, length, and texture to prepare it for matching.
3. Preparing Your Hair for the Factory
Once your ponytail is sorted and matched, it moves to the next stage of preparation. High‑functioning developmentally disabled adults in our job‑training program work alongside a staff member to complete quality control. Together, they confirm the hair type match, assign the wig an inventory number, and enter each donor into our database.
This step ensures every donation is fully documented, carefully organized, and ready to be shipped to our professional wig‑making factory.
Each donation is documented, matched, and assigned an inventory number before heading to the factory.
4. Professional Processing & Wig Construction at the Factory
Once your ponytail arrives at our professional wig‑making factory, the transformation begins. The factory team carefully cleans, prepares, and aligns the hair so it’s ready for wig construction. This meticulous process ensures the hair will feel soft, natural, and comfortable for everyday wear.
From there, skilled wigmakers handcraft each wig with precision and care.
They:
Build the cap foundation
Hand‑tie hair for natural movement
Every wig is created by hand, with patience and artistry, resulting in a beautiful, custom piece that restores confidence and dignity to its recipient.
5. Styled, Photographed, and Prepared for Matching
After the wig is completed at the factory, it returns to our workshop for the final touches. Our developmentally disabled volunteers carefully style the finished wig and take a photo of it. Then, our higher‑functioning groups create a collage that includes the wig photo along with the donor names.
Our team then inventories the wig by cap size, color, length, and texture so it’s ready to be matched to the perfect recipient.
Our volunteers style the finished wig and create a collage featuring the wig photo and donor names.
6. Matching a Recipient & Delivery — Always Free
Once the wig is fully prepared, our team works directly with individuals experiencing medical hair loss to understand their needs, preferences, and lifestyle. Each wig is matched with care so the recipient feels like themselves again — comfortable, confident, and seen.
When the match is complete, we ship the wig directly to the recipient at no cost. This is the moment your donation becomes a transformation:
A child returns to school with confidence. A woman in treatment sees herself in the mirror again. A family feels hope during a difficult time.
At the recipient’s discretion, we may also send you a photo of them wearing their new wig — a meaningful reminder of the impact your generosity helped create.
Matched with care and delivered free to someone experiencing medical hair loss. Recipient photos are shared only at their discretion.
Why Sponsorship Matters
Every ponytail we receive is a gift — but only sponsored ponytails can move forward in the wig‑making process. Right now, we have an enormous amount of donated hair waiting in our storage closet, simply because it has not been sponsored.
Turning a ponytail into a finished wig requires materials, skilled labor, and hours of detailed work. A $150 sponsorship ensures your hair becomes part of a completed wig instead of sitting in storage.
Your support is the step that brings your donation full circle and helps us turn generosity into a life‑changing wig for someone who truly needs it.
Over 100,000 unsponsored ponytails are waiting to become wigs. Your sponsorship makes the transformation possible.
A Note From Hair We Share Cofounder, Suzanne
Thank you for taking the time to learn what happens to your hair after you donate. Every ponytail that arrives here represents kindness, courage, and hope — and we treat it with the respect it deserves. Our team, our volunteers, and our recipients feel your generosity every single day.
If you are able to sponsor your ponytail, please know that your support truly completes the journey. It allows us to turn your donation into a finished wig and place it into the hands of someone who needs it more than you may ever know.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you for being part of Hair We Share. — Suzanne