| "What started as an ordinary lunch period turned into a day at the salon Wednesday, as four Castaic Middle School students and their principal each had their hair cut and donated in the name of charity." "Placed in a row on the campus' main outdoor stage, the four female students - Alejandra Gonzalez, Natalie Joost, Ashley Silvestre and Brianne Jeske - each donned smocks and placed their hair in soon-to-be-snipped ponytails, as volunteer hair stylist Ella Claffey prepared to go to work." "Within moments the girls would provide a combined more than 40 inches of hair to "Locks of Love" - a nonprofit public organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children suffering from long-term medically-related hair loss." ""One ... two ... three," said Principal Marcia Dains, leading an audience countdown to the first official snip, which resulted in the loss of seventh-grader Natalie Joost's 10-inch ponytail. " "The hair samples were then placed in plastic storage bags, and prepared for shipping to the Locks of Love headquarters in Lake Worth, Fla., where they will be sorted by length and sent to a manufacturer to be made into children's hairpieces." "Each manufactured hairpiece requires between 6 to 10 donated ponytails, and if sold in stores would retail for between $3,500 and $6,000 each." ""I think this makes kids, and all of us, realize how fortunate we are to be healthy and how many different ways we can help other people," Dains said." "While all of the participating students were happy to be donating to charity, each had a different reason for doing so." "Seventh-grader Brianne Jeske felt "different" about her new
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