The eight- and 10-year-old sisters calmly sat in the chairs at Goggin's Family Hair Care in the MidTown Mall on Tuesday and let stylists cut their long thick brown ponytails off to donate to an organization that makes wigs for children undergoing cancer treatment.

When the girls saw children without hair on television undergoing chemotherapy treatment they said they knew they wanted to give their own hair to the children who didn't have any.

Amanda's hair, tied in a ponytail and Andreya's hair in a braid came off in 40-cm long bundles.

"We'll have 10 more minutes to eat breakfast in the morning," says the girls' mother Pam Archibald, holding back her tears when she saw her girls new short hair.

The girls have never been to a hairdresser, says their mother. She gave Amanda trims at home regularly, but hasn't trimmed Andreya's hair since she was three years old.

Ms. Archibald says she learned how to donate her daughters' hair from the Canadian Cancer Society Web site at cancer.ca. She says she chose to donate to Locks of Love because they seem to do something with all of the hair. Any hair Locks of Love doesn't use is sold and the money helps cancer victims.

The girls say, with smiles, that they like their new short hair, and everyone is amazed how curly Andreya's hair turned when the weight of her braid was gone.

Amanda says she won't have the longest hair in her school anymore, but that's OK because a child with cancer will have it.