It’s been 42 years since Wanda New’s hair has been cut short.
But today, as part of a segment on the Today show featuring people who are donating to Locks of Love, New will give up her long tresses to help a child who has lost his or her hair.
“I’ve threatened to cut my hair for some time now, but I could just never bring myself to do it,” New said last week. “My hair has been my identity for so long. I don’t know what it will be like without it.”
New said her mom cut her hair short when she started high school. She was 13.
“I decided right then that I wanted it to grow,” she said. “I never wanted it to be that short again.”
A recent measurement shows that from the crown of her head to the tip of her hair is 57 inches.
“I debated cutting it when I turned 40 and then 40 came and went,” she said. “I considered it at 45, then 50. Now I’m 55.”
About 10 years ago, she had Glamour Shots done in anticipation of a cut. She also went to Nashville for a visit with Crystal Gayle. She wanted to see whose hair was longer. Gayle’s was — but not by much.
Since then, she said she’s been thinking about cutting her locks. Last week, a teller at a Frankfort bank, Lisa Mitchell, told her about the Today Show segment. She e-mailed them with the length of her hair. Her phone rang the next day.
“It was Jamie from the Today Show and they wanted to fly me to New York,” New said. “I told her I had to think about it.”
The next day, she called Jamie back and told her she’d be part of the show. That night, she almost changed her mind.
“I thought, ‘I can’t do this,’” she said. “If I could have, I’d have called her back right then and told her I wasn’t coming.”
One hundred people will have their hair cut during today’s segment. Two of those will be interviewed by Ann Curry. New is one of them. The other is a 7-year-old boy who heard about Locks of Love when he was a kindergartner and decided he wanted to donate his hair.
“They told us they’d cut our hair early and then bring us back in the 9 a.m. hour to show the makeover they’d done. I just wonder how they’ll cut and style it and if I’ll be able to make it look good when I get home.”
She’s also worried that she won’t feel the same when she gets home, without her long locks that are usually piled on top of her head with several barrettes and other types of hair holders.
“For so long, my identity has been my long, blond hair,” she said. “I usually wear it down when I’m not working, so lots of people know me. They’ll go into a place and see ‘the woman with the long blond hair’ and know it’s me, Wanda New.”
But, she said her hair is getting thinner and she finally decided the time was right to get it cut. The Today Show segment offered her the perfect opportunity to donate it to a good cause.
New and her sister, Barbara, flew to New York Tuesday afternoon. They’ll be home tonight and New will be back on her mail route Thursday.
She said she wished her sister, Mary Helen, could have gone with her. Mary Helen has cancer and has started losing her hair. But Barbara is considering donating her hair during the segment as well. That was why, New said, she initially asked if Barbara could accompany her to New York.
“I’ve had strangers come up to me and tell me not to cut my hair,” she said. “It’ll never be the same. It’ll never grow back, but the time is right.”

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