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The US maker of the famous Barbie franchise will release a doll next year that is bald in support of children who have cancer and lose their hair in treatment, a Mattel spokesman says.

The decision to launch the new doll, which Mattel described as "a friend of Barbie," was made after a massive Facebook appeal drew over 157,000 supporters to the cause of urging the doll maker to consider a version for sick kids.

The hairless dolls will come with an assortment of wigs, hats, scarves and head coverings and will be available for donation and distribution in early 2013, Mattel said.

They will not appear on store shelves, but will go straight to hospitals treating children with cancer in the United States and Canada.

"We have offered small quantities for our Mattel subsidiaries internationally to provide to charity partners in various other countries," Mattel spokesman Alan Hilowitz said in an email to AFP.

"We made the decision not to sell these dolls at retail stores and profit from them, but rather more directly and immediately get these into the hands of children who can most benefit from a play experience with these dolls."

An appeal for the doll came from a Facebook group called Beautiful and Bald Barbie, which said it hoped to aid young girls who are struggling with hair loss for medical reasons such as chemotherapy, stress or compulsive disorders.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/bald-cancer ... z1r11SQE9i

Two school girls aged just eight and nine have both sacrificed their flowing long hair to a charity which uses it to make wigs for child cancer sufferers whose treatment has left them bald.





Olivia Pickup, 8, from Shepperton in Surrey, decided to give up her long blonde ponytail for a very personal reason - her father Mark has been battling bowel cancer for nearly four years.

Olivia said: 'Every little girl loves to have pretty hair and I think it must be awful if, as well as being unwell, you also lose all your hair.'

Olivia Pickup, 8, grew her hair long for a children's cancer charity after her father was diagnosed with bowel cancer

Meanwhile Lucy Smith, 9, from Oxted in Surrey, decided to lose her curly brown locks as she wanted to show how serious she was about raising money for charity.

Lucy first had to get permission from her school because normally such short hair is not allowed in class.

She asked her friends to film her mother give her a crew cut and post it on YouTube in a bid to raise further awareness.

In the video her friends and sister can be heard giggling and stifling gasps as her mother Sue Bradshaw-Smithis cuts off the ponytail with scissors. She then uses barber clippers to crop her hair further.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/artic ... z1r7FHeerw