Love spurs lock loss

By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK

anne@iolaregister.com

Five-year-old Aysha Houk got her hair cut because she loves her former preschool teacher, Teresa Cook. 

Cook, who runs Munchkin-Land Preschool, has cancer. 

Aysha learned how Locks of Love takes long hair to make wigs for cancer sufferers, and volunteered her pony tail. 

The cut was given by stylist Lindsey Vaderford of Wild Hare Salon, 108 E. Madison Ave., on Thursday afternoon. 

Mom Kristie Houk was more reluctant than her daughter about the loss, but noted, “her hair grows so quickly.” 

Cook was on hand to thank Aysha, who is now in kindergarten. 

“I can’t believe she did that,” Cook said of Aysha’s gift. 

Cook joked that maybe she’ll get a wig made of Aysha’s hair. She lost her own to chemo treatments for three brain tumors. Her now-monthly chemotherapy is working, she said, and she has only one tumor remaining. 

“I’m doing good,” she said, grinning beneath a carnation-pink ball cap.