Blogger goes bald for a good cause

March 19th, 2012

Being a closet emo, I’m no stranger to weird and unflattering hairstyles.

It all started back in year six when my mum let me give my (naturally brown) hair a red rinse for our end-of-year school dance. I was, like, totally the coolest person there.

Since that time it’s been black, purple, maroon, blue, red, orange, pink, green (both fluoro and emerald), lilac, and even – *gasp!* – blonde.

But one thing I’d never been brave enough to do was shave it all off.

….until now!

World’s Greatest Shave

Last weekend thousands of Australians shaved (or coloured) their hair to raise money for the Leukaemia Foundation.

Every day, 31 Australians are given the news that they have leukaemia, lymphoma, myeloma, or a related blood disorder – which adds up to more than 11,500 people per year.

The Leukaemia Foundation provides free practical and emotional support to people with blood cancer and their families, as well as investing millions in research. The organisation does not receive government funding, so it relies solely on donations through fundraising events like the World’s Greatest Shave.

So it’s a fantastic cause, plus it gave me an opportunity to do something insane to my physical appearance. Win!

Although, I was nervous. What if my head was horribly misshapen? What if people mistook me for an escaped mental patient? What if I looked like a marshmallow?

These were all valid concerns.

But with everyone from Appliances Online enthusiastically supporting my cause – including CEO John Winning (who had pledged to match company donations dollar for dollar) – I had no choice but to be brave, and shave!

Before the shave

And we're off!

It turned out to be a hugely liberating experience that I would recommend to anyone. And it’s given me a small insight into what it must be like to be undergoing chemotherapy treatment, in terms of the way people react to you. (Yesterday a woman on the street yelled at me: “Is that fashion or cancer?” – a true story, unfortunately).

The end result!

Personally, I think my new look rocks! 😀

Donations will still be accepted up to April 5, so if you’d like to support the Leukaemia Foundation you can do so here: http://my.leukaemiafoundation.org.au/LouCarter

And here’s a video of the big day! (Special thanks to our intrepid videographer Kevin).

Louise Carter

Louise is a writer with a passion for appliances, especially those that involve food. She is particularly fond of ovens because they enable her to make cake. Apart from baking Louise also enjoys listening to alternative music, dying her hair various unnatural colours and writing poetry that has been described (by her Nan) as 'quite nice'. On her appliance wish list is a Hello Kitty toaster and 'Hero' the barking dog-shaped hot dog maker. She lives in Sydney. Google+

One response to “Blogger goes bald for a good cause”

DragonGirl says:

March 19, 2012 at 5:32 pm

Before reading this blog: I was doing accounting homework while doing that nodding thing trying not to fall asleep. After: significantly more awake, also your head looks awesome!