LEWISTON – Covering her mouth, Autumn Ballard, 10, giggled nervously and squirmed as she watched a hairstylist gather her twin sister’s hair into a long ponytail, then snip.
Autumn had agreed to her sister’s idea: get their hair cut for Locks of Love, a Florida-based charity that provides hairpieces to children in need. Now, she looked a little doubtful as the strawberry blond hair that fell down Savannah’s back was quickly cropped to shoulder-length.
“They’ve never had their hair cut short,” said the girls’ mother, Deni Ballard, looking on from a seat at Kutters Korner on Highland Spring Road on Wednesday.
Her daughters, including 5-year-old Sierra Ballard, all were donating their hair in memory of their father, who died of lung cancer Sept. 6, 2004.
When it was finally her turn, Autumn bravely hopped into stylist Lisa Olmstead’s chair and awaited the scissors.
“When she cut it off, it felt heavy,” she said later, grinning and toying with her new style.
The twins remembered watching their father, who never smoked but worked as a bartender, battle his disease.
They remembered how he lost his hair.
“When it grew back, it was fuzzy,” Savannah said. She thought of her dad “a little” when her hair was getting cut.
Deni Ballard said her daughters wanted to help children who had lost their hair. Savannah first came up with the idea of donating before they left Florida, where they lived until Ken Ballard’s death.
Deni Ballard, with long tresses of her own, said she’d hoped the idea would be forgotten after they moved to Auburn to be closer to relatives.
But Savannah kept asking. And after seeing a news show special on Locks of Love a few weeks ago, their mother agreed it was time. And she surprised herself by agreeing to get her hair cut, too, which she planned to do Wednesday.
Ballard said she wanted to let people know about Locks of Love, and that “you don’t just get your hair cut and waste it.”
“We’ll never cut our hair again after this,” she added. “We’re gonna have gray hair to our butts, we decided.”
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