Lots of time passes before braids given to Locks of Love
By Serra Muscatello Staff WriterArticle Photos
NEW ULM- On a gorgeous fall day in St. Cloud -Sept. 24, 1940, an eighth-grade Charlotte, also known as "Jibbie" West, made the decision to cut off her long, thick braids.
"It was a beautiful summer-fall day," said Charlotte West Anderson, who now lives in New Ulm and is a retired school teacher.
In those days, "Bit by bit the girls were getting their long hair cut. I think I was probably the last to get mine cut. It was kind of spur of the moment (decision)," she said.
Anderson, who was originally St. Cloud, remembers that the hair of her contemporaries was always neat looking. "It was either braided or cut short ... mostly cut short ... there weren't too many that had long hair."
However, she always wore her long hair in braids.
About 4:30 p.m. her aunt Charlotte (for whom she was named) took her to Lucille's Beauty Salon on the second floor of a building along St. Germaine Street in downtown St. Cloud.
Nita Reed Woolfolk cut her hair that day.
"She was a nice person ... a friend of the family," said Anderson.
The hair cut and permanent to curl her hair that followed took nearly five hours.
Anderson initially wanted to cut her hair. But afterwards she regretted the decision. She wanted her long hair back.
"I was very disappointed," said Anderson. "I just cried and cried. It was just awful. It was frizzy, tight and snarly ... and I couldn't get a comb through it. The perm was terrible."
"My family was upset, too," said Charlotte, "Because they tried to comb through it and they couldn't comb through it."
The braids, with hair ribbons attached, ended up in storage for decades.
"We put them in the cedar chest and forgot about them," said Anderson.
"Then a couple of years ago I found out about Locks of Love ... found my braids and decided to donate them to this cause."
Locks of Love is a public non-profit organization providing hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children in the United States and Canada under age 18 suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis.
Anderson gave her hair to the "Locks of Love" program about a month ago.
Anderson lives in New Ulm with her husband Hobart and is active in the community.
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MommyB
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11-07-09 9:27 PM
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Wow! I didn't know Locks of Love took hair that old! Amazing!
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