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Autistic Boy Grows Hair for 2 Years until Chopping It All Off for One Reason

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American males sporting long hair have faced all sorts of ire, everything from odd looks to rude comments to even being denied access to certain public venues.

In fact, up until the late 1960s, Disneyland would turn males with flowing locks away from the iconic park for not meeting its unwritten dress code.

Eight-year-old Tate Morgan from Spanish Fork, Utah, certainly knows the pain of sporting a lengthy mane.

On Dec. 24, 2015, he decided to let no razor (or scissors or clippers) touch his hair.

“He’s like, ‘Mom, I don’t want to do it,’” his mother, Kassandra Morgan, told KSL. “‘I don’t want to cut my hair.’

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“I was like, ‘Why?’ He’s like, ‘I don’t know. I want to do something good with it.’”



So Tate let his hair go, and it crawled passed his ears, below his chin, and down the back of his neck.

By the second month of 2018, it had reached his shoulders and continued even further.

“Every time I go to a new school with long hair, they call me a girl,” Tate said. “I’m a boy!”

Tate’s used to being considered a little different. He has a high-functioning form of autism.

However, he didn’t let the opinions of others keep him from helping the less fortunate. After more than two years, he decided to donate his hair to Children With Hair Loss.

The nonprofit’s tagline is “covering young heads to heal young hearts.”

It supplies donor-supplied coiffures to youth suffering from hair loss due to burns, alopecia, and cancer.

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When Tate finally decided it was time to take off his long locks, he visited a nearby Cookie Cutters salon, a chain that caters to children.

There, stylist Tyra Eckersell bundled his hair into a long ponytail — and handed the scissors to his mother to make the first cut.

“I just love how little kids have the biggest hearts,” Eckersell said. “They just want to give.”

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A graduate of Wheaton College with a degree in literature, Loren also adores language. He has served as assistant editor for Plugged In magazine and copy editor for Wildlife Photographic magazine.
A graduate of Wheaton College with a degree in literature, Loren also adores language. He has served as assistant editor for Plugged In magazine and copy editor for Wildlife Photographic magazine. Most days find him crafting copy for corporate and small-business clients, but he also occasionally indulges in creative writing. His short fiction has appeared in a number of anthologies and magazines. Loren currently lives in south Florida with his wife and three children.
Education
Wheaton College
Location
Florida
Languages Spoken
English
Topics of Expertise
Entertainment, Faith, Travel




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