Kent boy lets hair grow 20 months for charity

By Erik Lacitis
Seattle Times staff reporter

JOHN LOK / THE SEATTLE TIMES Dominic Bizak, 11, gets a haircut from stylist Linda Tang on Wednesday at Master's Touch Salon in Kent in order to give his long hair to Locks of Love, a nonprofit group that makes wigs for children.

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The idea to grow his hair long started when Dominic was in fourth grade. He read a news story about Locks of Love, a nonprofit Lake Worth, Fla., group founded in 1998.

The organization provides free wigs to children who, for a variety of medical reasons, have suffered hair loss. Since its beginning, the group has given out 1,400 wigs to kids under the age of 18. The wigs cost about $1,000 to put together and use 140,000 strands of hair, which is injected into skull caps. The caps fit onto the child's head with a vacuum seal so the wigs stay on even when swimming.

Susan Stone, executive director of the group, said she receives between 2,000 and 3,000 ponytails a week from donors, 80 to 90 percent of whom are females. So a donor like Dominic is valued.

"I knew I was doing a good deed and helping someone," Dominic said. But he couldn't wait to get a buzz cut — a popular style for boys these days. For the nearly two years it took to grow 12 inches of hair, Dominic put up with teasing, classmates' curiosity and adults' stinging comments.

	Before the haircut.

Once, he was playing in a soccer game and the referee addressed the all-male team as, "All you boys and girl," noting Dominic's long hair.

When Dominic's family moved from Elma to Kent because of his dad's work with computers, he spent the last six weeks of fourth grade at a new school. When you look different, at that age you're an easy target.

"I'd get harassed, get called 'girlie boy;' I was easy prey, easy kill. I got threatened to get hit," he said.

Dominic's mom, Sheryl Small, remembered how her son frequently was mistaken for a girl. "Just last month, camping with the Boy Scouts, others tried to stop him from entering the boy's bathroom," she said. "He just grits his teeth, says, 'I'm a boy,' and goes on."

	Dominic Bizak got a buzz cut after letting his hair grow for nearly two years.

At one point, Dominic thought about getting his hair cut and forgetting about his mission. "My mom helped me get through it," he said.

Small said she told her son he was doing a good thing by helping other kids.

Jonnica Royal, 6, of Seattle, is one of the children helped by the organization. Her mother, Toni Royal, said her daughter has a hereditary skin disorder in which one of the symptoms is never getting beyond baby hair. Jonnica, she said, wears the wig "on special occasions, like to parties or to church."

Small said all of Dominic's life, "people have told him "what pretty hair he has, nice and thick, with a bit of wave. He decided someone else needed it more than he did.

"I'm very proud of him," she said.

Erik Lacitis: 206-464-2237 or elacitis@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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