Joe Pacheco had his plait clipped off for the charity Locks for Love, after seeing the article of the Baksh sisters in last week's Royal Gazette.

Mr. Pacheco, 34, from Somerset said: “A good friend of mine has cancer and he is only 37, so when I saw the article I thought it would be a great idea to cut mine as well.

“It hurts a little not to have my plait, but a child could use my hair.”

He began growing his plait six years ago after a bet at Cup Match that he would never grow it long.

He said: “I won the bet and I liked my hair long. I will begin growing it again, so that I can donate again.”

Annette Cook who collects hair in Bermuda for Locks for Love said: “Many people do not realise that the wigs go not only to cancer patients, but also to sufferers of alop?cia areata, a disease that can suddenly cause partial or total baldness and severe burns to the scalp.

Mrs. Cook sends off a few parcels a year to the US-based charity, compliments of FedEx.

Mrs. Cook became involved in hair donation after she had seen an Oprah Winfrey programme on the subject.

She later went to get her waist-length hair cut and she teamed up with the manager of Strands Hair Salon, Tim Horan.

Mr. Horan and Mrs. Cook decided to wait until September, after the wedding season, to start a drive for people to donate their hair.

On the very first occasion 26 people had their hair cut. To date 37 people have donated their hair through her. And according to Mrs. Cook a similar drive in Florida saw almost the same numbers of donors for the entire state.

“There were also lots of mixed race and African decent people donating virgin hair and this hair is needed because there are not enough donors doing this.”

The wigs are called prosthetic hairpieces and are made to fit the head perfectly the with vacuum fitting - they do not require the use of glue or tape.

This allows children and adults to do all the normal activities, like going out to play, swimming, gymnastics and other activities.

Hair that is to be donated must be at least ten inches long, bundled in a pony tail or a braid, must be free of hair damaged by chemical processing and be clean and dry.

For Bermudians if they have a problem of permanent hair loss, insurance companies will deal with it on a case-by-case basis, but will pay for the prosthetic hairpiece (wig), for both children and adults.

Mrs. Cook said: “We send the hair to Locks for Love apnd they send it on to a company that will make the wigs. The partings are matched to an individual's skin tone and no one would know that the hair on their head is a wig.

The first step of the process is making a plaster mould out of the head, Locks for Love provides a step by step video guide and other equipment needed for making the mould.

The entire process takes about four months to complete.