No Shave November has been a growing topic for the past ten years. It is now featured on the news and has even turned into a popular concept on many social media platforms. Throughout the month of November, people refrain from shaving and donate the money they would spend on razors, shaving cream and other products to cancer prevention and awareness efforts. No Shave November is an organization that started almost ten years ago when The Chicagoland Hill family lost their father, Matthew Hill, to colon cancer in 2007. Hill’s eight children helped create the initiative through Facebook in 2009. Since then, the family has started raising money to help fight cancer; they have raised over two million dollars, and it has spread throughout the country.

The organization’s website describes the intention of No Shave November as “[growing] awareness by embracing our hair, which many cancer patients lose, and letting it grow wild and free.”

The majority of cancer patients must go through a rigorous treatment, called chemotherapy, a process that usually injects specific cancer-fighting drugs into your body via a vein in the patient’s arm. As a result, many patients lose some, if not all of their hair.

Most think that No Shave November is something that only applies to men, but women can participate as well.

When asked about her opinion in it, Angelica Ginzburg, ‘22, said, “Many people think that it’s gross for girls to not shave even in the winter, but if I’m wearing pants every day then what’s the point?”

So if not shaving for a month and instead donating your razor money to charity means that you can help out organizations like St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and The Prevent Cancer Foundation, then why not? No one will mind your hairiness if it’s for a good cause.

Photo Courtesy of Emil Liden