Young sisters donate hair to help kids with cancer

VINEYARD, Utah – Getting a good haircut is always important, but a recent haircut held extra significance for two young siblings.

Eight-year-old Kaya Ballard and her 4-year-old sister, Daphne, donated the long locks that they had been growing for years in order to help create wigs for kids with cancer.

“Hopefully, you know, our hair will help somebody be happy,” said the girls’ mom, Winnie Ballard.

The mother said Kaya had already donated her hair once when she was 5, and Daphne was donating her hair for the first time.

“I think it’s great,” said Winnie Ballard, who also had her hair cut and donated while joining her daughters at Cookie Cutters in Orem.

The father, Jason Ballard, said the family tries to instill lessons in their children that will benefit them later in life.

The couple, which owns a business that buys, sells and rents college textbooks even encouraged Kaya to inventory and sell her own allotment of 200 textbooks on Amazon.

“I want my kids to grow up with a good work ethic and also have a service-oriented mind,” the dad said. “I just think it’s amazing at this young age that they can understand that.”

The two girls each donated 8 inches of hair.

“It’s super cool and it’s cool that they’re so aware at such a young age and want to give so much,” stylist Tyra Eckersell said.

She commended Kaya for her donation.

“Did you know you’re going to help somebody so much today?” Eckersell asked the 8-year-old. “You did such a big thing for somebody who has lost hair.”