For most of the year, Harrison Thompson normally sports a neatly trimmed goatee and his hairline is always perfectly shaped. But for 30 days out of 365 ¼ days, he allows his hair to grow wild — no shaving, no trimming, no shaping up. He puts away all shaving products to participate in the event known around the world as No-Shave November, a month-long journey during which participants forgo shaving and grooming to provoke a conversation and raise men’s health awareness, particularly cancer awareness.
During November participants hope to grow awareness by embracing hair, which many cancer patients lose, and letting it grow wild and free. The money saved from the lack of grooming is typically donated to a charity to educate about cancer prevention, save lives and aid people fighting the battle. Some of the biggest issues faced by men include prostate cancer, testicular cancer, poor mental health and physical inactivity.
The rules of No-Shave November are simple — put down the razor for 30 days and donate the monthly hair maintenance expenses to the cause.
Thompson has been letting his hair grow wild during November for the last six years.
“I only learned about it [No-Shave November] when I went off to school in 2009, so I’ve been doing it every November since then,” said Thompson.
Initially, he found not shaving a fad, and thought it was “cool and manly” to grow out his beard.
“Everyone at my college was doing it. It was popular to do at the time,” he said. “Then I learned about the donations behind it, and that it’s not just a fun act. That you want to raise awareness, and you want to be proactive,” he said.
“Then I started to attach the financial aspect to it and people would ask me about my beard and why I was letting it grow out, and that provided me with the opportunity to talk to them about what I was doing. As the years went on, I became more serious about it and actually write it down in my calendar. So on November 1, I shave, and then allow the beard to grow in for the remainder of the month, and then shave on December 1.”
Thompson takes all the money he saved that he would have spent on shaving and hygiene products to groom his beard and donates it to prostate cancer education and support. As he usually cuts his own hair and beard, and doesn’t spend a lot of money on products, he usually saves around $60. He said he feels good to donate whatever he can and the initiative.
“It feels good because I am all about helping people, so for me it kind of fit right in. We’re losing a lot of men as it is to crime, but when we lose a lot of our good men for things that we can prevent like health problems and conditions, I think this is something that needs a lot of focusing on, so it definitely means a lot to me,” he said.
Through participating in No-Shave November, Thompson, a therapist/psychometrist and motivational speaker at Relationship Management, at Grosvenor Close, off Shirley Street, took the opportunity to look back at his own family’s history. He learned his grandfather had prostate cancer, and that a lot of men in his family tended to neglect their health. That brought him to the realization that participation in No-Shave November could be used to raise more awareness, especially among Bahamian men who he said don’t like to be proactive, and wait until it’s too late before visiting the doctor.
Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men worldwide, and the sixth leading cause of cancer death among men worldwide. The rate of men diagnosed with testicular cancer has doubled in the last 50 years.
It is also estimated that 510,000 men die from suicide globally each year, with three out of four deaths by suicide by men. Physical inactivity is said to be the fourth leading risk factor for global mortality, and causes 3.2 million deaths globally.
By the end of No-Shave November, Thompson usually “looks like a bear” as a result of the hair that grows in, but for that month-long period, he enjoys it, because he says he’s always been a rough kind of guy.
“I haven’t always been the neatly-trimmed one. I’ll be nice looking and presentable, but I think this [No-Shave November] definitely works into who I am as a person — natural, and a little rough around the edges — but a person with a good heart who is still trying to do good things.”
For those men who will hop onto the No-Shave November band wagon next year, he said that they should be aware that there are things that they can use to make the experience easier, including beard softeners, balms and oils which help with irritation and bumps.
He also said that there is a positive for men to participate in the experience. “Black men have sensitive skin, especially as they shave often, and they may find that by actually growing out their beard for a month, they can actually give their skin a chance to heal and prepare itself for the next shave that they’re going to do,” he said.
Thompson will resume his normal hair grooming today, taking a razor to get a month’s worth of facial hair under control and get back to his normal self. He has all of the equipment men shave with — the razor, the machine and the lotions, but if he had to choose just one, he said a single blade razor would be his weapon of choice.
And while he knows less than a handful of Bahamian men who participated in No-Shave November this year, he hopes it’s an initiative that will catch on.
“These kinds of things catch on like wildfire in the States, but here you have to work a little harder,” he said.
Thompson has been spreading the word about why he chose not to shave his hair during November on social media, educating people on the fact that he wasn’t grooming his facial hair not just for fun and kicks, but that he was doing so for a worthy cause, and the meaning behind it.
No-Shave November is a month that brave women can also participate in by letting their legs go natural, skipping waxing appointments and donating that money to a cause as well in support of men’s health awareness and education.
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