Paying it forward through Hair to Help

Hailey Holder Allen (known by many as “H2”) stole the hearts of many middle Georgians last year, when on May 16, 2019, she was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), a rare cancer that most people can’t even pronounce. Her diagnosis resulted in the scheduling of 56 weeks of inpatient chemotherapy and at least one operation in addition to the initial one that removed a large malignant tumor from her left thigh. Little Hailey’s journey sparked an entire movement called H2 Strong, and with the help of the community, her mother, whose name is also Hailey Allen, said that H2 is now doing well.

“They are considering her stable at this point,” Allen said of her daughter. “She does have a year of maintenance chemo to complete, but as long as she doesn’t relapse this year, she’ll be finishing chemo in July.”

Allen reported that a chemo patient has to be off treatment completely for 10 years with no relapses in order for the medical community to consider them cured, so until she reaches that milestone, H2’s status will be categorized as “no evidence of disease.”

Although, her daughter is doing well, Allen said that she and her husband, Blake, wanted to be a blessing to some other families who are going through some of the same things they faced. So when her longtime friend, Jacob Gore, called her not long ago, and they began talking about how they could collaborate efforts and help in the fight against childhood cancer, they came up with the idea of Hair to Help.

Gore, who is the owner of Alfa Insurance – Jacob Gore Agency, said, “I’ve been growing my hair now for the past two and a half years. I’ve got a little two-and-a-half-year-old girl. I think I’ve cut my hair once since her birth, so it’s just been getting longer and longer. Before this summer started, I thought that I really kind of wanted to cut my hair, but I wanted to do something. I wanted to make a little bit of a difference in what little way I could.”

That’s when Gore began researching for ways he could use his hair to be a help. As he did so, much of the information he found on hair donation stipulated that the donor’s hair had to be 12 to 14 inches long, and at the time, his had not yet gotten to that length.

“I just continued to let it grow and would every so often check to see … okay, am I there yet? Where are we at now?” Gore said with a laugh. “It got to the point where I was getting close to it. I was telling my wife that we had to do something. Then, here recently, I saw a girl on Facebook make a post about donating her hair. I contacted her and asked whom she used. She told me about Children with Hair Loss. Their minimum requirement was only eight inches, and I decided that I was definitely going to do it.”

Gore said that his hair is now about 13 inches in length, and as he was preparing to move forward with the donation, he got into the conversation with Allen that sparked the idea of Hair to Help.

“Hailey had called me, probably about two weeks ago, and we were talking about something else. During the conversation, I asked her if she knew of any families that were in need. After I explained to her what I wanted to do, she said she actually knew two families that would be perfect,” Gore shared. “We talked about it and decided we were going to try to make the event as big as we could. So, not only am I donating my hair, but I’m also shaving my head for childhood cancer awareness. We’re going to have other people out there who will be donating their hair and shaving their heads. The eight inches kind of brought a lot more people into play. Whoever donates the most money is going to be the one who actually gets to shave my head.”

This isn’t Gore’s first time helping in the raising of funds for childhood cancer. He and another Alfa agent—Devon Joiner—teamed up to spearhead the H2 Strong Golf Tournament that raised over $36,000 in 2019 to help with H2’s medical expenses. Gore’s connection to the Allen family spans back to their teenage years.

“Jacob and I went to school together at Warner Robins High,” Allen said. “I was a year ahead of him, and my husband was two years ahead of him, but they played baseball together. We also went to school with his wife, Addie.”

According to Allen, they lost contact for about 10 years, but when the news broke of her daughter’s fight with cancer, Gore was one of the first to reach out to them, and she’s still grateful to him for the successful golf tournament that he played such a vital role in pulling together.

Allen said all of the inches of hair that are donated during Hair to Help will be sent to Children with Hair Loss, a nonprofit organization that makes wigs, free of charge, for children who have medical conditions that cause them to lose their hair.

“This event is not to benefit H2 at all,” Allen clarified. “We wanted to help two other local children whose parents are having a tough time financially with their children’s treatment. The person who makes the largest monetary donation to Hair to Help will be the person who’ll get to shave Jacob’s head.”

Kolton (age three) and Heath (age 10) are the two children with cancer that Hair to Help will be supporting. Allen wanted to make it clear to the public that the fight between a child and cancer is not a one-year battle. Many kids have long-term medical treatments. Kolton is in active treatment right now with Frontline. Heath is a little further along, but his dad has to work two jobs to help support them because Heath still has appointments that require them to travel out of state.

“The expenses just keep coming,” Allen revealed. “For Hair to Help, people can make donations through Venmo, cash or check.” She explained further that, “There’s really three ways to participate. One would be to donate your hair, which has to be over eight inches. Another way is to shave your head, which we’ll have local kids with cancer and their families there to shave people’s heads—and that’s to raise awareness to pediatric cancer. And then, the third way would be to make a monetary donation to benefit the two families.”

The date for Hair to Help is Wednesday, September 30, and it will take place in the parking lot of the shopping center where Alfa Insurance – Jacob Gore Agency as well as Graphic Guys (the Allens’ family business) are located. The address is 1238 S. Houston Lake Road in Warner Robins.

“I think we have about 10 people so far that have signed up to donate hair,” said Allen. “It was somewhat of a last-minute project we put together, but we wanted to do it in the month of September because this is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. We wanted to end the month with a bang. The community has really rallied around my family and supported us through our daughter’s journey, and not everyone gets the same support. So she’s taken care of right now, and she’s doing really well. This is our way of paying it forward and helping other families.”

HHJ News