Teen donates his 19 inches of hair to kids with cancer before heading to Air Force Academy

Kieran Moïse, an Alabama teen who is headed to the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado, did not want his first haircut in six years to go to waste. Hence, on Saturday when he cut his 19-inch-long hair, he announced that he is donating the hair to kids and young adults who have lost their hair due to medical reasons.

Moïse is donating it to a nonprofit called Children with Hair Loss who in turn would make real hair wigs for young cancer patients. “When I knew it was going off anyways, I wanted to do something good with it,” Moïse told ABC’s Good Morning America.

The decision to donate to this cause did not happen in a vacuum. Moïse lost his best friend to cancer in the eighth grade and has since been looking for a way to give back. “My friend Josh — things got bad and he passed away in December of our eighth-grade year,” Moïse said.

“I just don’t like haircuts and I haven’t gotten a haircut for maybe six years. I’m going into the military, and I didn’t want them to just cut it off and drop it on the floor. I wanted to give back because there are lots of people that need that help,” Moise told WAFF.

The Alabama native cut his 19-inch-long hair at the Straight to Ale Brewery in Huntsville. However, the journey to this big chop began in 2019 when the 17-year-old attended a cancer fundraiser event where several people were shaving their heads bald. He then finally decided to give his hair to children battling cancer.

Moïse last weekend disclosed that he has set a goal for himself to raise $1000 per inch of hair for St. Jude’s Hospital through a fundraiser he has started called Kieran’s Curls for Cancer. St. Jude’s is a leading children’s hospital known for treating cancer among other pediatric diseases.

“I’ve always wanted to help support cancer fundraising,” he said. So far, he has exceeded his original target of $15,000 and has raised more than $33,000 for a cause he believes will help put smiles on the faces of young ones with cancer.

Recently, the determination of an 11-year-old girl from Norfolk led to a “historic breakthrough” in the wig-making industry in the UK. One of the biggest charities in the UK, which accepts donations to make wigs for little girls with cancer or other related diseases, manufactured the first two afro wigs with real afro hair, thanks to the girl, Carly Gorton.