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INUVIK
More than 1.5 metres of hair was cut or shaved at Ingamo Hall Friendship Centre Sunday afternoon.

Karen Bibby gets her head shaved for cancer by Eliza Firth Sunday afternoon. This is the third time Bibby has shaved her head in eight years. - Katherine Hudson/NNSL photo

Nine residents, the youngest age seven, shaved their heads or chopped off their hair for cancer.

It all started with a Grade 4 student, Lauren Ross. Brown hair flowed all the way down her back and she wanted to get a haircut for a cause. Her cousin, Mahlena Ross-Gruben – with equally long hair – decided she would get a haircut as well. Then word spread, and others in the community stepped forward and started fundraising for their makeover.

The Muskrat Jamboree, which is running from March 30 to April 2, is dedicated to cancer patients, survivors and care givers.

Lauren's mother, Sallie Ross, who is running for this year's Muskrat Jamboree King and Queen title with her husband, thought it would be fitting to donate Lauren's hair to the Canadian Cancer Society and giving funds raised to the Stanton Territorial Hospital Foundation.

"We lost several people in our family with cancer," said Sallie. "It's an important cause and it affects so many people."

For Ross-Gruben, 10, this is the first haircut she's ever received, aside from trims. Her dark hair was pulled back into a pony tail before multiple scissor snips left 50 centimetres of hair in her hands.

"It doesn't matter how short, and it's going to a good cause," said Ross-Gruben.

Rebecca Baxter and Claudine Kisoun also sat up in the hairdresser chairs on the stage of Ingamo Hall and chopped off large quantities of hair.

At least 25 centimetres of unprocessed hair must be cut off for it to be donated and made into wigs.

Then there was the shaving – two women, Julie Miller and Karen Bibby, went under the razor.

Miller had shaved her head four or five times before and, with overwhelming support from her friends and members of the fire department, this time raised about $1,100, as of Sunday afternoon.

Bibby shaved her head for the first time eight years ago and the second time three years ago. She shaved it again on Sunday and said she does it in memory of her father.

"My dad died of lung cancer when he was 39. I can't do marathons – this is something I can do," she said.

Tyren Kisoun, 7, Richard Ross Jr., Larry Greenland and Brent Connell also shaved their heads for the cause.

Mayor Denny Rodgers helped shave Ross's head – at first just shaving a bald spot on the top of his head, giving him the "Friar Tuck look" before another stylist took over and finished the job.

Marlyce LaRiviere, a hairstylist who volunteered to cut and shave some of the heads of hair Sunday, said she sensed the nerves once people sat in the chair.

"Even for the ones who've done it once or twice, they still get a little nervous until they feel the clippers on their head and then they're good," she said.

According to Sallie, the main organizer of the event, more than $4,000 had been raised as of press time.

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