BHUBANESWAR: You might have come across quite a few recent viral videos, reels and stories on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, etc., where barbers, friends or relatives are tonsuring their own heads in solidarity with women fighting cancer. Such gestures while being heartwarming and leaving the viewer with a surge of emotions are at the same time a reflection of the much-needed compassion and support for cancer patients battling the disease.
However, away from the spotlight of social media, Harapriya Nayak has been silently doing so since the last three years and using her tonsured hair to crown the cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy by turning them into wigs. Not stopping at that, she has mobilised a not so small army of around 150 women, men and youth to do so.
Along with other side-effects, chemotherapy also induces severe hair loss in cancer patients. For women, particularly, the pain and suffering notwithstanding, losing their precious hair is most excruciating. It affects mental health, leads to depression and erodes the resilience to fight back against the disease.
Harapriya, a social worker, realised this a few years back when she saw some underprivileged women fight cancer and lose hair in the process. Moved by their plight, she wanted to help in whatever way she could. Under her Social Organisation for Professional Volunteer Action (SOPVA) trust, she decided to donate her hair to make wigs and motivate others to do so for poor cancer patients who cannot afford expensive wigs made of natural hair.
A native of Chhangarh village in Khurda district, she launched ‘Mission Smile for the Cancer Fighters’ and became the first donor of the initiative in 2021. Now working as a cluster coordinator for JAGA Mission under the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), she tonsured her head and donated waist-length hair to the Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital in Mumbai, with the help of Madat charitable trust there.
In the last two years, she and her team of 10 SOPVA volunteers have mobilised 150 persons, both women, men and children of not just Odisha but also neighbouring Jharkhand, to donate hair for the cause. The youngest one among them is six-year-old Anya Sharma of Jharkhand.
“Traditionally, women with long hair are considered beautiful. Before I started this initiative, I saw many cancer survivors of poor families not having the courage to step out of their houses because they lost hair,” said the 32-year-old.
While synthetic wigs are cheap and easily available, they do not last long and may lead to skin problems, she said. Natural hair wigs are safe but they cost 10 times more. “Natural wigs are something that a cancer survivor from a marginalised community can never even think of because of the cost. The first wig was donated to a patient in Bhadrak in 2022. We could see how happy and confident she became after getting the wig,” said Harapriya.
Her organisation has so far managed to donate 30 wigs to women cancer patients. Her trust collects hair and sends them to Hyderabad-based ‘Hyderabad Hair Donation For Cancer Patients’ organisation which prepares wigs free of cost. While Harapriya and her team conduct hair donation drives in Bhubaneswar and nearby areas, both donors and patients in need of wigs also contact her through her social media handles that go by the name ‘Hair Donation Odisha’.
Healthy hair of at least eight to nine people, approximately 300 grams, is required to make one wig. People willing to donate should have a minimum of 12 inches of hair. “We do not accept hair shorter than 12 inches as that cannot be used to make wigs. Besides, while cutting the hair, it should not fall on the floor as that cannot be used to make wigs,” she said.
Her initiative has fetched her several awards from different organisations. Harapriya plans to donate her knee-length hair for the second time next month. “I was waiting for my hair to grow long before I donated again. It is well over 12 inches now,” she said.