"Mom, Happy St. Patrick's Day. Just wanted to let you know I shaved my head today. I'll see you when you get home from work!"
It has been almost two years exactly since I shaved my head. St. Patrick's Day my junior year of high school I told my two best friends that we should go to the St. Baldrick's event and cheer on all the guys shaving their heads. The quarterback of our football team was shaving his beautiful hair, so I wanted to be there to see his flow one last time.
So I dragged the girls to the event and we sat watching the 16 boys getting in line to be "shavees." There were a few teachers and other staff, but one thing I noticed, in particular, no females were shaving their head at this event. See, in the moment of being at the event I turned to my friends and said, "I'm going to do it," and they both looked at me asking: "Are you sure, Lauren? We just want to make sure this isn't something you regret." And somehow I knew there was no way I would regret this impulsive decision.
I asked one of my friends to videotape me as I got my head shaved. My barber was the funniest person I have ever met. He kept cracking jokes with me and was telling me all about how I'd love being bald, and as the first hairs were shaved away, a smile crept onto my face with thoughts in my head like "I literally am shaving my head right now," "I wonder if I have an egg-shaped head," "will my head be cold," "I wonder if I'll look ugly," "oh my gosh, what if guys don't like me." And yet, when I looked in the mirror for the first time after my head was shaved, I had never felt more beautiful in my entire life. It didn't matter in that moment if someone thought my head looked like an egg or if someone didn't want to go on a date with me because of what I had done. I realized that what I had just gone through was so much bigger than myself.
A girl in my community that I've had the great pleasure to become friends with through our bond of being "shavees" was kind enough to tell me about her experience with St. Baldrick's, saying: "I've always wanted to do something bigger and better than I've done in the past and this was just the thing. Not only was it a huge commitment, but I think it also raised awareness in the community that the patients shouldn't be struggling with this alone."
One of my best friends from high school also participated in St. Baldrick's on Jan. 1 this year. She texted me, saying, "You've been my inspiration this whole time!" after shaving her head, and I started sobbing. This person who I look up to so much told me that something I had done inspired her, and I really don't know a better feeling in the world than that.
Another girl in my community told me this amazing story when I asked her about her St. Baldrick's experience: "I chose to do St. Baldrick's because my sister was diagnosed with cancer and I wanted to do something to help others who had cancer -- I didn't just want to let it happen and be helpless, so I shaved my head and raised money for St. Baldrick's. Shaving my head was the best thing I have ever done. It raised almost $5,000 for kids' cancer research while also spreading awareness of how underfunded kids cancer research is. Even two years later, I still have people asking me about St. Baldrick's and shaving my head. Recently I held a fundraiser at Fire + Wine and raised almost $20,000 for St. Baldrick's. It was an enormous job and came with an abundance of stress over the year and a half it took to plan, but the event was extremely successful. In the end, it was more than worth it. And now St. Baldrick's can get $20,000 closer to curing kids cancer".
This is the moment that my sister saw me for the first time with my bald head because she was a college senior, and to this day it is one of my favorite photos ever. The pure love in my sister's eyes is so apparent, and it fills me with joy because this captures truly the community and how everyone rallied behind me after I shaved my head. I was able to raise $1,200 in support of childhood cancer research from shaving my head, and that is something I am so proud of.
If you're interested in participating in St. Baldrick's, there is absolutely nothing I can recommend more in the world. One thing that I know is potentially hard is the fear: "What if my hair doesn't grow back?!" While I cannot guarantee that it will, here is a picture to show you that just two months after shaving my head I was able to put my hair in the world's smallest ponytail, and I truly believe that your hair will come back looking just as fabulous as ever.
Hair is hair -- it grows back. You look beautiful with lots of it, with tons of colors in it, with wigs, with no hair, with whatever you desire. Just remember that you are more than your appearance, and the children battling cancer appreciate the donations, the love, the friendship that you provide them more than anything in the whole world. I regret absolutely nothing about shaving my head for St. Baldrick's, and I honestly believe with all of my heart that because of this I have grown into a much greater person than I would have been had I never "Braved the Shave."
