WGS
Celebrating 25 years of World’s Greatest Shave
The story behind one of Australia’s longest running and most iconic fundraising campaigns.

World’s Greatest Shave Timeline

How a shaved head went from being a hairstyle to a national beacon of hope for Aussies facing blood cancer.

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1998

The Graydon family hosted the first‑ever shave event.

World’s Greatest Shave — originally named Shave for a Cure” — began following a successful event organised by a family on the NSW North Coast of Lismore. Eric Graydon was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) and needed to relocate for emergency treatment.

His family decided to do something BIG to raise both funds and awareness for those suffering from leukaemia — they challenged the Leukaemia Foundation to come together and shave the greatest number of heads in 24 hours. Word got out to the media, and nobody could have foreseen what happened next.

The results? $80,000 raised, and 200 heads shaved. And just like that, World’s Greatest Shave was born. 

The rest — as they say — is history.

Grayson
1999

First official Shave for a Cure’ event occurred, with 1.85 million raised 1,700 heads shaved!

2003

Name is changed to World’s Greatest Shave’ and was inducted into the Guinness Book of World Records for most heads shaved.

2007

Our famous chins’ were introduced to Australia.

The Leukaemia Foundation made a radical, fun, and hilarious change to World’s Greatest Shave by introducing our iconic chins’ — and we haven’t looked back since.

2013

This year marked the biggest fundrais­ing year in shave history with over $20,000,000 raised!

2018

In 2018, World’s Greatest Shave celebrated 20 years of shaving the world and was cemented as one of Australia’s most iconic fundraising events.

Wgs 20 years
2020

Australia starts shaving their heads from home.

After an unprecedented start to the year — including bushfires and the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic — The Leukaemia Foundation and the rest of Australia needed to raise funds for people living with blood cancer in completely new and creative ways. 

2021

A new hero is born.

Australia is introduced to Max Shaver — the ultimate zip-lining, gadget-wielding, helicopter flying, wire-hanging, head-shaving action hero who is ready to kick blood cancer’s gluteus maximus! 

2022

Cel­e­brat­ing 24 years of World’s Greatest Shave!

In 2022, the Leukaemia Foun­da­tion will cel­e­brate 24 years of World’s Greatest Shave — mak­ing it one of Australia’s longest-run­ning and most loved fundrais­ing events.

Peo­ple of all ages chan­nel their inner action-hero and shave, cut or colour their hair — sup­port­ed all the way by proud fam­i­ly, friends, col­leagues and classmates.

Some will have a per­son­al con­nec­tion to blood can­cer, while oth­ers take part sim­ply to have fun, tick some­thing off their buck­et list, and to raise mon­ey for a good cause.

More than 2 mil­lion Aussies have tak­en part over the past two decades, with an estimated 37,500 kilo­grams of hair removed!

Our TV ads includ­ing our famous chins have been an icon­ic part of the cam­paign for near­ly 15 years.

This time around — with the intro­duc­tion of Max Shaver — is no exception.