When he was 11, he came home crying because some comrades teased his hair. But Jacob McPeake had four more important reasons to let them grow.
The child, originally from Brockworth, in England, had lost four family members due to cancer.
So he decided to transform a simple gesture like letting himself grow hair into a concrete help for other children.
For about two years Jacob let them grow to reach, when his history became public, a length of about 43 cm.
His project was accurate: cut them in December 2021 and donate them to the Little Princess Trust, an organization that makes wigs for children and young people who have lost their hair due to a disease.
But carrying out that choice was not always easy.
At school some comrades began to target him for long hair. There were days when Jacob returned home to tears.
He could have cut them and put an end to the tricks.
He chose to continue.
Because that hair wasn't a matter of fashion for him. Every inch approached him when he could give them to someone he needed.
And Jacob decided to do even more.
Alongside the donation of the hair he organized a fundraiser for the same association. The initial goal was to reach £500.
When his story was told, he had already collected £120: more than twice as much as he hoped.
Solidarity began to take the place of teasing.
After learning what he was living, rugby player Guy Thompson, ambassador of Little Princess Trust, sent him a shirt and a letter of support.
The family also continued to encourage him.
Jacob started that path thinking about the four family members he lost. In the end, however, his gesture could have helped children he had never met.
And this is perhaps the most powerful detail of his story.
Those who used to tease him only saw a child with long hair.
Jacob already knew that those hair, one day, would become something completely different for someone else.