Imagine being four-years old and suffering from leukemia. Nicole Farrants-Wilkins can’t bear the thought, and as she sat in a chair watching her precious pink hair fall to the floor, that’s what was on her mind.
Farrants-Wilkins was one of the two-person team, the Pink Warriors, who participated in Edmonton’s Hair Massacure.
The event is hosted yearly as a fundraiser for the Northern Alberta Make-A-Wish Foundation, and the Stollery Children’s Hospital.
This wasn’t Farrants-Wilkins’ first year taking part.
“Last year I helped fundraise for it, and I donated a little bit to it but I have never shaved my head before,” she said, adding she did it for a good cause.
“The Make-A-Wish Foundation does amazing things for kids,” Farrants-Wilkins said, adding all of the proceeds go towards helping families in Northern Alberta.
“In most hospitals, a mom and a dad can’t stay with their sick kid all of the time,” she said, adding that the funds also go towards granting children’s wishes.
Farrants-Wilkins said it was her teammate Tabatha Sheenan that inspired her to go the extra mile.
“Tabatha was a really big inspiration, she’s 12 years old and she doesn’t care what other people think of her,” Farrants-Wilkins said. “I was always worried about shaving my head and how it would look and how other people would look at me, but she gave me that inspiration to be like, who cares.”
The Pink Warriors are still accepting donations up until March 30, and have raised a total of $1,200 so far.
“We still have a few online donations, and we still have a few people come in (to A Kut Above) and give us donations,” Farrants-Wilkins said, adding that the word spread through word of mouth.
“A lot of it was in here, we go through so many clients a day and you tell every second client that comes in, eventually the word spreads around,” she said.
Farrants-Wilkins, hair stylist at a Kut Above, said some of her clients were unclear as to where the funds were going.
“I had a lot of clients where I would tell them about it and they would say, I have donated so much money to cancer, and cancer cures, and they still haven’t found a cure, and I would say to them, this money isn’t going towards finding a cure, it’s going towards helping children cope with the illness that they have,” Farrants-Wilkins said. “They would finally come around, and they would end up donating money.”
Prior to shaving their heads, the Pink Warriors dyed their hair bright pink.
“It’s called Calley Pink, and Calley was a young girl that died, and she always participated in the Hair Massacure,” Farrants-Wilkins said.
Having bright pink hair seemed to grab the attention of passersbys.
“I had a lot of people ask me, and I could tell them I am shaving my head, and this is the day, and I am fundraising for this,” Farrants-Wilkins said. “Part of it’s awareness for people about what you’re doing, cause you see someone walk down the street with hot pink hair and you wonder why their hair is pink. It helps with fundraising.”
The team had a goal of $1,000 and so far they have gone above and beyond.
“I think it went great, we reached our goal, and went over our goal,” Farrants-Wilkins said, adding she donated any tips she made through cutting hair.
“I really like that organization, and that’s why I picked Hair Massacure,” she said. “To be able to give a kid that, whether they end up dying or not, you get to give them a wish.”
Farrants-Wilkins’ has seen the affects of cancer first hand.
“I don’t know any children close to me who have gotten cancer, but my grandparents both died from cancer, so I think it’s a good thing.”
Anyone interested in donating can visit A Kut Above or can go online to hairmassacure.com.
