Cutting for cancer

Students supported cancer patients by letting their locks hit the floor at an annual charity event Wednesday.

Lakehead University students and staff shaved their heads for Cuts for Cancer in the Agora building. The hair will be collected and donated to Locks of Love, which provides hairpieces to financially struggling children 18 years old and younger suffering from cancer.

Marty Johnston, 21, is a third year political science student. He said his decision to shave his head was a long time coming and waited for a charity event before doing it.

"I was going to get it cut sooner or later," Johnston said.

Johnston’s blue-highlighted hair sat on the ground as the audience watched and cheered him on. He said he would miss his hair.

"I’ll definitely miss it … it had some style to it," he said.

Tyler Dilallo, 19, house president with Resident Life, said the event brings more awareness on how cancer can affect someone’s life. He said they hoped to raise $1,500 for the Canadian Cancer Society.

"It’s a good thing to do," Diallo said. "Girls who end up getting cancer have really low self esteem issues because of chemotherapy. We just think that this is a really fun thing to do and we’re getting some attention too."

Many people who signed on for the event did not have an appointment. Organizers originally wanted the event to have an appointment system in an effort to reduce the number of people the two barbers had to deal with at once.

However, a number of people showed up the day of the event to have their haircut. By 1 p.m. Dilallo said they were well underway with seven shaved heads and still had more to go.
"A lot of people want to go ahead and do it right now," he said. "Our residence life staff are good at getting people excited. The students who live in residence are generally our biggest group who get involved."

Eric Culkion, 22, residence programmer at Lakehead University, said the event started about 10 years ago. He said they tried to organize the event around Relay for Life but it didn’t work out.

"Most students in residence have been touched by cancer," Culkion said. "Usually it is through a family member or friend. Students are kind of tapped out for money around this time of the year so we run this more as an awareness thing."

Culkion said students understood how people needed support when dealing with cancer. He said the majority of those who shaved their heads were residence life staff.