Georgia boy grows his hair out for 2 years to donate it to a friend


After letting his hair grow long for two years, it was finally time for Tyler Boone, 10, to chop it all off for a good cause.
Boone's friend, 12-year-old Gabby Ruiz, was diagnosed at age four with Alopecia areata, an autoimmune disease that causes hair loss. Boone decided that he wanted to forego haircuts and let his hair grow long enough where it could be turned into a wig for Ruiz. On Dec. 29, Boone, visiting from Georgia, accompanied Ruiz to a salon in Brandon, Florida, and she was handed a pair of scissors and given the honor of cutting off his 12-inch ponytail (the hair will be turned into a wig by the nonprofit Children with Hair Loss). Boone — who now sports a buzzcut — said he shrugged off people asking him if he was a girl, because all he wanted to do was "make [Gabby] happy." Catherine Garcia
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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