The WMUL-FM staff marked their 10th year of Hair from the Herd Thursday on the Memorial Student Center plaza.

Hair from the Herd is an annual event held by WMUL-FM radio staff. They take donations of hair if it is long enough, along with monetary donations if someone just wants a trim.

“The point of Hair from the Herd is to get donations from the students of Marshall University and people from the community. If people have at least eight inches of hair, they can donate that and we can send it to the Children with Hair Loss organization for them to make wigs, so kids can feel a little better about themselves,” said promotions director of WMUL-FM, Rashard Walker.

“It’s our 10th annual event,” said Adam Rogers, WMUL executive director. “We have partnered with Locks of Love in the past, but wanted to change it up, because Locks of Love made kids pay for it. We are now partnering with Children with Hair Loss for the second year. They give it totally free of charge to kids that are dealing with illness causing them to lose their hair.”

News staff member Brian Leonard said, “It is something simple that anyone can do, you grow hair. Most people get it cut anyways, so why not give it to a good cause?”

This year’s event was in partnership with the Paramount Beauty Academy out of Portsmouth, Ohio. This was their second year providing the haircuts.

“They called, and we came up last year and the students really, really enjoyed it,” instructor Vickie Hamilton said. “They loved being up here and cutting hair.”

The staff from Paramount Beauty School said they want to participate in this event for years to come.

“For one, they are donating the hair for cancer patients, a good cause,” Hamilton said. “For people with these types of diseases, wigs are very expensive and this just helps.”

Sheila Parker, another instructor, said, “Our students really do love to do this.”

Rogers credits a lot of this event to the volunteers.

“We can never have enough volunteers,” Rogers said. “Without our volunteers and staff, events like this do not happen. We need help because it really is important to give back to our community.”

Alexis Leach can be contacted at [email protected].