Stuart Anderson

I'm fundraising for the World's Greatest Shave

Since I was young I have wanted to do the World’s Greatest Shave (WGS). I don’t think I had a very good idea of exactly what it was, all I knew was that it was to help sick people with cancer, and that it seemed like a fun way to do that. The famous chins was a great marketing approach, and it really worked for me at an age where I was largely clueless about the broader picture of the cause.

But as the years went by I never did do it. Maybe I never felt comfortable enough to change myself what feels like a big way? Or maybe I wasn’t confident enough to try and raise money for something? But what is most likely though is that I got busy as I got older and didn’t really think about it aside from the occasional pang of recognition and guilt I would feel when I saw an ad or something that reminded me of the world’s greatest shave.

Now I’m 29 years old and December 16th of this year is my 30th birthday. And for the first time in years, I really started thinking about the world’s greatest shave again a couple of years ago.

To be completely honest, I was actually thinking about my own hair, at least to begin with. Here I was in my late 20’s, and after some personal health issues of my own, I had missed a lot of what I thought to be life and concerned about how I could catch back up, was very self-conscious about my hair as a significant aspect of my youth, as I understand many men go through a similar thing at that age. At this time I heard someone say that ‘everyone should know what what their bare head looks like at least once, before they go bald’, in regards to the idea of making a choice, and it resonated with me. I started to consider the idea of shaving my head in order to sort of take control of the situation before it happened to me. And for the first time in a while I thought about the World’s Greatest Shave again and thought seriously about participating perhaps the first time ever.

But that’s exactly what has prompted me to start this campaign now. Months later as I was toying with the idea of setting a date and starting a WGS campaign but never doing so, I had a brief, and ultimately trivial, but very scary experience with cancer myself. Due to my as yet undiagnosed gut health issues, my doctor suggested that I do a pet scan to check for a neuroendocrine tumour, a cancer. This turned out to be a relatively routine exercise to rule out a less than 1 percent chance of something, but actually having the term referring to me scared the hell out of me - as well as the procedures of the scan itself, and the days waiting for results after - and I spent the week leading up to my scan thinking about my life, and about dying and, honestly, freaking out. And I learned more that week about cancer than I ever had before, including watching and reading about people’s stories, perhaps as a way to prepare myself. Fortunately the results came back negative, and I felt a bit silly about worrying so much before sort of returning to life.

Months later I was worrying about more benign things like my hair again, and thought about the world’s greatest shave once more. This is the first time that I actually did something more than think about the idea of it, and I went to the website to find out how I could take action. This is the first time that I learned that the World’s Greatest Shave is specifically to support people with leukaemia, blood cancer.

Leukaemia will always be a word that elicits a strong response in me. When we were kids my younger brother had a close friend named Ashlon, and ashlon had leukaemia. I remember aspects related to this would come up fairly frequently; ashlon needing to take his meds when staying over or getting picked up to go home early, my brother visiting him in his many visits to hospital. Though I wasn’t personally involved, it was my first experience around cancer. I always admired ashlon’s strength and character at that time, and I’m happy to say that he is healthy and living a full life now.

But the word still hit me like a ton of bricks and I thought about so many people experiencing the same challenges as ashlon did, as well the stories I have since heard and people, friends and family, I have known who have had experiences with cancer.

And I also thought about about how just the concept of having cancer affected me, and the fire that was truly lit inside me to act on it.

Now, perhaps it shouldn't have taken me to personally be affected by something to take action on a cause I seemingly care for. I thought so, and when I tried to put into words why I was doing the world’s greatest shave for my first campaign’s bio, I had a lot of difficulty doing so. And that kept me from putting the page up and raising any money for another good while. My goal was to raise some money for the cause and shave my head on the official WGS day in march of 2024, and I did grow my hair out pretty long for a while, but as the day approached I hadn’t put my page up or raised any donations. And I decided that continuing to grow my hair much longer wasn’t practical, let alone until next march, and used the info on the wgs website to find a different way that my hair could be used.

I then put up my bio and campaign as is, donated $35 myself, and made a haircut appointment at ____ where they helped cut my hair probably the shortest it’s ever been, and collect clippings to donate for floating booms https://www.worldsgreatestshave.com/fundraising-tips#hair-donate

While there, I had a very good chat with the person who cut my hair and helped with the collection, who had his own experience with cancer through his father. It was clear to me then that everybody seems to have some connection with cancer, and it really lit the fire back in me to do the campaign again. That was back in April, and since then, when I remember to I’ve been trying again to decide what to write in the bio for my second campaign so that I can go back to ___ and talk to that hairdresser and his colleagues about donations, as I had promised him.

And now it is months later and I’ll admit, I’m thinking about the shave for different reasons. My 30th birthday is less than 3 months away and I’m not sure what that means for me. One thing I know is that it means I’m reaching the next major milestone in getting older, and that I will no longer be able to think about the time I have to do the things I wanted to do in my 20’s, the idea of which I still hold onto even now; though it is obviously barely the case anymore. And I’m thinking about my youth, and I’m thinking about my hair again. And my hair is getting long and hard to make presentable once more, and how do I want to be when I reach that milestone?

So rather than continue to grow it out until march of next year, I have decided to dedicate my birthday and the days leading up to it to a campaign, where you are invited to participate or watch me finally get my head shaved.

Some of my reasons for doing this are less altruistic than others, and that’s partly why it’s been so difficult for me to put into this message into words that I am confident about and feel are honest. But I also think that most, if not all people have several reasons for doing things, even selfless things, and that’s ok.

What is important is that a good cause is being supported and the people who need it are getting help. As well as my feelings on the challenges around having cancer, I also think about the primary reason behind the world’s greatest shave of providing wigs to people with cancer who may have lost their hair. The idea of losing my own hair through far more gradual and natural means has affected me greatly, and I feel so much for those who may have been affected similarly in much more sudden and unpleasant circumstances, on top of all the other challenges that cancer can bring.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my story, and my attempt at explaining why I am campaigning to do the world’s greatest shave.

If you would like to support this campaign please donate, or even just share this story with others who might be interested.

And for the day itself, please feel free to come and participate or watch me finally get my head shaved on the 16th of December 2024, and help me celebrate turning 30 by doing something bigger than myself.

I will update this page with info on plans and the venue as I work the details out: