WEST JORDAN, Utah – A West Jordan boy is helping other kids by growing out and giving away his own hair with a personal reason for his unique way of giving back.
On Thursday afternoon, Morgan Gero indulged in a round of Apex Legends in his bedroom as one hand furiously clicked away on the keyboard and the other made quick movements with the mouse.
"Gotta go. What the heck?!" Morgan said, as game noises echoed from his computer. "Now I got a good combo."
Morgan enjoys video games, and a quick look around his room shows something else he loves – Star Wars.
"The force is strong with this one," bold lettering states above his window as a life-size cutout of Anakin Skywalker stares down from one of the walls.
It's clear Morgan is like any other 12-year-old boy – but some people mistake him for a girl instead, because Morgan's hair flows down to the middle of his back.
"It's annoying when people just think I'm a girl," Morgan said. "Usually when I go into the boys bathroom, people kind of look at me funny. Even the adults look at me funny. They're like, 'What are you doing in this bathroom?'"
What Morgan's doing is growing his hair out for kids who lost all of theirs because of medical issues and treatments.
"Those kids who really need hair," he said. "So yeah. I could help them out."
After two years, Morgan's locks have reached the right length to donate to Wigs for Kids.
His mother, Sandrine Gero, took Morgan to Main Attraction in Bountiful to chop off 12 inches Thursday afternoon.
"Alright, you ready?" hairdresser Marion Gallagher asked before she separated the hair into small pony tails, and one-by-one, snipped them off.
The process was pretty painless, and important – especially for a kid who has suffered some serious medical problems of his own.
"I was born earlier than I was supposed to [be born]," Morgan said. Sandrine said she went into labor at 27 weeks. Morgan lived his first weeks of life in the NICU and Sandrine said he almost didn't survive.
"It was really hard. It was very traumatic for both me and my husband," Sandrine said. "We did not know if he was actually going to live."
Morgan beat the odds and didn't suffer any lifelong health conditions.
He knows other kids like him aren't as lucky, and he wants "to help kids feel normal."
This isn't the first time Morgan has donated his hair.
Four years ago, he began to grow his hair out and donated it for the first time two years ago. He then started the process again.
Even though Morgan said it will be nice to not get any more weird looks with his new short haircut, he plans to keep going.
Morgan will grow his hair out a third time as he continues to give back to this cause.
