Walking into the room, she anticipates what others might say to her. The teacher asks her to take off her beanie. Reluctantly, she pulls it off, and the room is filled with shocked faces.

Sophomore Cecilia Nguyen shaved all of her hair and donated it to Locks of Love, an organization to support kids who have suffered from hair loss.

“Whenever I first came to school, everyone was all like ‘Why are you wearing a hat?’ and I’m like ‘I don’t know, it’s kinda cold,’” Nguyen said. “I didn’t want to tell everyone [it was] cause I shaved my head.”

Nguyen donated her hair, because her stepfather was diagnosed with cancer several months ago. The donation gave her hope.

“I wanna let people know it was for my dad,” Nguyen said. “I didn’t want it to be about me, cause that’s kinda like taking away from the purpose.”

Nguyen’s family members were upset and confused by her choice and hoped that she was going to grow out her hair in the future. But their reactions did not upset her.

“I went into the bathroom, and I shaved my head and then my dad came and he’s all like ‘What the heck?! Did you just shave your head?’ and I’m like ‘Obviously,’” Nguyen said.

Locks of Love’s policy for donation is that the hair be at least eight to 10 inches long and tied in a ponytail. Nguyen’s hair was short, but she managed to shave it so that it followed the guidelines.

“I did small sections of my hair [and tied them] into ponytails and I shaved each one off,” Nguyen said. “You have to make sure it’s in a compressed bag, [because] they won’t take if it’s all waving out. And then I just mailed it to the company.”

Her hair was donated to a 14-year-old girl with stage four leukemia. Deeply grateful and satisfied with her decision, Nguyen hopes the future will hold good things for her stepfather and that he will live a long life.

“I hope he lives for a little while longer,” Nguyen said. “Then I can grow out my hair, so he doesn’t have to die with me being bald.”