MANGALURU: Thirty-three-month-old Arnav from the coastal city, is perhaps the youngest to donate his ponytail to cancer patients It is a custom among many Hindu communities to hold 'Choulopanayana', a ceremony to celebrate the first haircut. Most of the families destroy the hair after the rituals. Contrary to the good old practice, parents of Arnav in the city donated over 10 inch long ponytail of their son to American Cancer Society , which donates wigs to cancer patients who lose their hair after therapy, through Pantene Beautiful Lengths. Parents Ashwin Prabhu and Shreelatha Prabhu feel that the initiative will help motivate more Hindu families, especially Brahmins and GSB communities, to make choulopanayana a ritual combined with charity."It is a compulsory ritual in our (GSB) community to hold choulopanayana for children during first haircut. Usually, after the rituals, parents destroy the hair. But, we thought of using it for charity. With the help of my friends, I collected the details of Pantene Beautiful Lengths, who accept hair and manufacture wigs for charity. We are sending the Arnav's hair to their centre in the US. We have an option to suggest the nation where the wigs manufactured using the hair we sent, should be donated. We have suggested them to donate the wig to cancer patients in India. Pantene Beautiful Lengths representative also have confirmed that Arnav is the youngest child to donate hair to them," said Shreelatha Prabhu.As per their criteria, all donated hair must be at least 8 inches long. Arnav's hair was longer than 10 inches. After cutting the hair, it was preserved dry and packed as per the instructions, she said.Shreelatha said, "We have not deviated from the traditional rituals related to choulopanayana. All rituals are followed as per tradition and we have made the only change of donating the hair instead of destroying it."

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