Glenn Poirier hadn't had a haircut since 1984.
His hair fell in brown waves around his face, well past his shoulders, a friend that had been there every step of the way since well before the day he decided to sacrifice it for someone else.
For many someones, most likely. Scissors and electric hair clippers sat poised in the social hall of Wyatt Park Christian Church on Saturday, ready to relieve Mr. Poirier of the tresses that had raised $1,500 for childhood cancer research. He was one of about 10 people who committed to go bald (or nearly so) in order to benefit St. Baldrick's Foundation, which asks volunteers to shave their heads to identify with children undergoing chemotherapy and to request donations from friends and family.
Despite the many years Mr. Poirier spent growing his mane, the decision to do away with it took only a couple of weeks. But why do it now when he never had before?
"No one's ever asked before," he said, a simple reply -- as simple as the quick scissor snips that made his hair fall, section by section, to the floor.
The hair-buzzing event came about due to Wyatt Park Christian's associate pastor, Mike Campbell, wanting to do something to help people with cancer after witnessing a family member's struggle with it. And although he wasn't among those who yielded his hair to the trimmer, his already bald head served as a good excuse.
"I shaved mine to promote the event," he explained. "I felt I couldn't ask people to shave their heads if I was walking around with a lot of hair."
It seems his strategy worked well, as he managed to recruit not only a number of men, but also two women who agreed to have their hair buzzed -- something that came as quite a surprise to their husbands.
"I would've never, ever thought she'd agree to do this," Delbert Main -- who also went bald for the event -- said of his wife, Lee Main. "I've seen her with very long hair when we married and with pretty short hair, too, but never with hair this short."
When all was said and done, Ms. Main's hair measured only about half an inch, and she was finally able to see what it looked like spiked, after years of wondering about the style. As it turned out, her husband loved it.
Also among the women brave enough to come close to being bald was Barbara Crumley, who made her decision to participate the weekend before the event. This left her only a week to gather pledges, but she still managed to collect a not-too-shabby $700, plus $100 more in the few minutes before she settled into a chair at 8 a.m. and let her stylist start buzzing -- a significant contribution toward the event total of about $5,000.
"It's definitely a sacrifice for me to give it up," said Ms. Crumley. "I do love my hair. But I guess I'm pretty gutsy, and of course, we women try to keep up with the men, anyway."
For her, though, getting a super-short cut was also about showing support for children whose situation she truly does understand. Her daughter, Angela, lost almost all of her hair permanently due to radiation she received for a brain tumor when she was 2.
Erin Wisdom can be reached at ewisdom@npgco.com. To see more of the St. Joseph News-Press or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.stjoenews-press.com/. Copyright (c) 2008, St. Joseph News-Press, Mo. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
Copyright (C) 2008 St. Joseph News-Press, Mo.