The time to donate your monthly hair expenses to help fight cancer

If you had the opportunity to grow out your facial hair to raise awareness for cancer, would you do it? You may not look the best at the end of the month, but you are raising awareness and fundraising to fight an awful disease.

October is finally wrapping up, time for No-Shave November to start. No-Shave November has its own website, no-shave.org, where their purpose is to “Grow awareness by embracing our hair… and letting it grow wild and free.”

Rules of No-Shave November include putting down your razor for the month of November and donating the money you would normally spend on hair expenses to cancer. It is also totally acceptable to groom and trim throughout the month of November as well.

I was introduced to No-Shave November when I was a freshman in high school. I had no clue what it was, nor how I could participate. My high school science teacher decided to have a nickel drive for No-Shave November. 

Throughout the month of November, we would bring in our nickels and any other coins we had. The rules were, if we brought in nickels and put them in our class bucket, we would get five points for each nickel. On the other hand, if we brought in dimes, pennies, quarters or dollar bills we would put these coins in other classes’ coin buckets which reduce their points.

This challenge would go on for the whole month of November to raise awareness for cancer. Whoever won the nickel-drive challenge got to have a movie and pizza party. Let’s just say some of my classmates got super competitive during this challenge and we ended up raising a lot of money for cancer.

Why am I telling you this story? My freshman science teacher had us compete in this to raise money for cancer, while he would grow out his facial hair for No-Shave November. Without a doubt, I know that if I walked into my high school tomorrow there would be a No-Shave November contest going on with the high school boys and there would be another nickel drive.

I believe it is so cool to see people participate in No-Shave November, it is such a great cause to donate to and raise awareness for. If you are worried about looking straggly, you don’t have to grow out your facial hair, you can donate money instead.

I have had a few friends who said they have completed the No-Shave November challenge. One friend told me, “I did it my junior year of high school and had to give up around November 15th because I looked so greasy. However, I think it is a super cool concept and I like watching other people complete the No-Shave November challenge.” At times, you may look a little greasy from the challenge, however, it is still so fun to cheer your friends on while they are completing their No-Shave November challenge.

Whether you are growing out your facial hair for No-Shave November or not, I challenge you to encourage those who are competing in this challenge and donate to the cause. The money for No-Shave November goes to prevention, saving lives and aiding those fighting the cancer battle. I will be donating and encouraging others who are taking part in No-Shave November. You should too.