Sacred Heart student to donate locks to charity

LYNN – Life can be tough in elementary school, when everyone is a critic and kids often end up being picked on by their peers if they do not necessarily fit in with what others around them consider to be cool.One Sacred Heart Elementary School student has put personal preference behind him and faced that risk with his head held high, putting his pride on the back burner and making a nearly two-year sacrifice in the name of helping others.Dustin Costello was 9-years-old and preparing to enter the fourth grade in August 2006 when he accompanied his mother to the hair salon for what turned out to be an inspiring trim.Inspired by a friend who was recently diagnosed with cancer, Costello’s mother, Amy, had her usually long hair put into a ponytail and chopped off that day for the charity Locks of Love, which takes donated hair from healthy women and uses it to make wigs for individuals undergoing chemotherapy, or suffering from other diseases that cost them their hair.Dustin and his mother made a deal that day: the football and baseball junkie would sacrifice his usual high and tight boy’s haircut, and let his hair grow until it was long enough for he and his mother to make another donation.”Since my mom did it, I felt like doing it too,” he said.As Dustin is discovering, life as a young boy with long hair can be difficult. Now 11 and in the fifth grade, he said life in general, especially playing sports, has become more tedious since he began growing his hair.”Coming back from sports all sweaty is hard – I look like I just got out of a swimming pool,” Dustin said, pointing out that wearing a football helmet is especially hard because it fits too tight and his hair is often in his eyes. “It is hard to get it to stay up, that is why we have to use the gel. My dad puts gel in it every morning, he makes my hair look bullet-proof.”Along with managing his unfamiliar style each morning, Dustin also ran into problems at Sacred Heart, where the strict Catholic code would normally prevent a boy from having long hair.After considering the circumstance, however, Principal Joanne Eagan agreed to allow the hairstyle as long as none of the other parents had a problem, and the hair was kept up in a bun while he was at school.”He should be very proud. It is tough knowing that some days some kids may say some things to him, and dealing with that is tough,” said Eagan. “We have some girls in the third and fourth grade that have done it, but for a boy, especially in the fifth grade to do it, that is quite a sacrifice.”Dustin says he doesn’t get picked on too much, and it doesn’t bother him when he is accidentally mistaken for a girl. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that his older brother Timothy, who is almost 14, is watching his back from the seventh grade.”I think it is a good thing for him to do,” Timothy said. “Somebody else who needs it is going to get that hair.”Dustin admits that he is more than ready to get rid of the hair, and cannot wait to take the clippers to his head next month. He is taking vitamins and brushing daily to help it grow.Locks of Love requires donors to have 10 inches of hair, but the Costellos stumbled upon another charity, run by the Pantene shampoo company, that will accept hair as short as eight inches. Dustin was measured earlier this week and came up just short of the required length, but it won’t be long until he can get some relief.Eagan said when the hair is long enough, she will hold an assembly for the whole school where Dustin will have his hair cut by his hair stylist, Nicole, from Rafael’s in Saugus.”He is ready to have it cut. I am not sure I am going to have enough to do it with him when he is ready though,” said Amy Costello. “I am going to miss my mini-me, but he is pretty eager to be a wiffle head again.”