Hair for Hope 2011 - Shaving for a Cause

I'd heard of people shaving their heads to show support for cancer patients before, and though I'd played with the idea for a little while I'd never actually given it any serious thought. It wasn't until a friend of mine (let's call her W for now) mentioned that she was planning to sign up for the event, but didn't want to do it alone, that I decided this was probably the perfect excuse chance I was waiting for.

Now into its 9th consecutive year, Hair for Hope is "the only head-shaving event in Singapore that serves to raise funds and awareness of childhood cancer. Every shaven head represents an understanding by an individual of the ordeals that a child with cancer is subjected to." Participants can either register via their website, or attend the event as a walk-in shavee, which was what W and I did.

It was surprisingly but amazingly crowded, considering the goal of the event! The displays on the stage are live counters and show exactly how many male and female participants were and are being shaved.

Michi and I made our way down earlier even though W was only supposed to meet us at 1pm, and it was lucky we did. The walk-in shavee queue was limited to 300 slots, and there were at least already 200 people in the walk-in shavee queue by the time we arrived only an hour after the event had officially begun!

It went from this...

... to this in about twenty minutes.

The queue didn't actually start moving until 2pm though, and W had joined us by then, along with her mother (who had also decided that impromptu shaving sounded fun). It took a while, slowly drawing closer to the main event taking place on the stage, but it was finally time to get bald.

Exhibit A: Before shaving

And after! I was given the HfH shirt during the sign-up process.

It wasn't too bad of an experience for me since I'm not a very appearance-conscious person myself, but I can't imagine how W or her mom felt (I've known W for about five years now, and she is very vain!) going under the razor. I'd like to think it's the courage of people like them, and all the other shavees at the event, especially female shavees, who really underscore the HfH message to people with cancer that it's okay to be bald.

The event is open today (Sunday, 24 July) as well, from 11am to 7pm at Vivocity (Harbourfont MRT station), if anyone reading this is interested in signing up. I think I'm definitely going to add this to my list of yearly events to attend and participate in. Plus, I'll be saving on shampoo and haircut costs!    

Going in to work on Monday with my head shaved is going to be awesome

edit 09 Aug: We have a few additional pictures from the event including our friend W and her mother who also shaved!