Rick van Tuyl - Locks of Love

 Team Firefighter member Rick van Tuyl grew his hair out to make a wig for chemo patients.  It was a difficult and emotional journey for him.  Here is his story:

Hair it goes. 

In Nov. of 2010, I decided to grow my hair for a 'chemo-wig'. It was during a chemo session that I was at with my mom. I went to them every three weeks with my mom. We had a routine: go to see the Dr with my dad, then he went to work while she and I went to her chemo session. Those were special times. Something that I cherish, the time of just being with her. Able to make her laugh, entertain her, making the best of a shitty situation. 

Afterwards, we usually went to lunch before I took her home. She was fighting her second round of lung cancer. On this particular day, I was walking by the nurses station and saw a basket of knit beanies. They were for the patients to cover their heads if they wanted to. Well, as my hair started growing from a buzz-cut, my nephew who is the starting quarterback for the Utah Utes decided to also grow his hair about the same time for the same reason. He also cut his about a week ago. Life is kind of funny sometimes.

Six months after I started growing it, she passed away.

I won't go into how work felt about it, but once people found out why I was growing it, most thought it was a pretty cool thing that I was doing it (Admin, not so much).

It's been a long and slow process. I was planning on growing it until November, which would have been two years of growth. My wife made a few comments about it, but also said "your hair is not a deal breaker." Well, last week, I measured my pony tail, and braided it was nine inches long. The foundation that I was donating to required at least eight inches when cut. I wanted to try and do a few things with it, to see how it would look, but decided I had better not. If I found a style, blow-dried, using some product on it, etc. and really liked it, I would have had a harder time of cutting it. I've had short hair since I was a junior in high school (1981, that's not a typo), so I was really attached to it. I decided to make an appointment to cut it.

Friday came, I went in and went through with it.  My stepdaughter made four pony tails and cut them.  It still feels a bit strange to not have long hair. I'm getting use to my short hair a little bit more each day.

I've only had one person, my doctor, tell me that it looked better long than short (that was because he saw me at a race and saw it flowing as he ran past me). Although, when people say how much better I look with short hair, I remind them of why I did it. If they knew or forgot the reason why, they all nod and agree that it was for a good cause. The people that had no idea, they are usually excited that I would do such a thing. To me, it just seemed kind of natural, make somebody feel a little better. It didn't cost me anything, in fact I saved a lot of money not getting hair cuts. But we try to do that all the time at work.

I don't know what else to say, except that I've shed a few tears writing this and that I miss my mom.