Busby School student Codie Belanger was the centre of attention at the school’s opening assembly May 26 for a well deserved reason — he was having 14 inches of his hair cut off for charity.
Codie had been growing his hair for three years, with the plan all along to have it cut off and donated to the Microsurgical Hair Restoration Clinic in Edmonton to be turned into a wig for a child cancer patient.
Before his coach and teacher Rick Mueller took a pair of scissors to lop off Codie’s luscious locks, he said it was kind of scary to think about having it all cut off.
“It will also feel weird to have less hair,” he said.
The idea to grow, and then cut off, his hair came from his older brother, Ryley. Four years ago, Riley had his hair cut for the same reason, their mother Kim said, and Codie wanted to outdo his brother.
“Sibling rivalry, you always got to outdo your bigger brother,” he said.
The haircut ceremony started with Codie sitting in a chair in the middle of the school gym, with his hair in pigtails. When everyone was settled, Mueller picked up a pair of scissors and got to work, first cutting off Codie’s right pigtail before moving on to his left one.
After it was all over, Codie said it certainly felt different not to have all that hair anymore.
“My neck feels cold,” he said.
After the three years of work to get to this point, he said he doesn’t know if he’ll grow it again in the near future. However, he did learn one lesson from the experience.
“It takes longer to grow it out than it does to cut it,” he said.
In addition to donating his hair, Codie was also raising money for cancer research to go to the Canadian Cancer Society. Through online donations and a change jar at Busby School, Codie’s efforts brought in more than $2,800 for the fight against cancer.
