Source: Radio New Zealand
A Kerikeri police officer has her head shaved as part of the 2015 world record head-shaving event. Peter de Graaf
A Far North charity is revisiting a world record it smashed 10 years ago with another attempt to turn a town bald.
On 20 November 2015, a total of 462 people had their heads shaved during a Bald Angels Charitable Trust fundraising event in Kerikeri.
The feat was later recognised by Guinness World Records as the greatest number of heads shaved in one hour.
So many people went bald at once – everyone from former MP Kelvin Davis and Rugby Sevens legend Eric Rush to police officers and schoolchildren – visitors to Kerikeri in the following weeks wondered if some strange illness was sweeping the town.
Bald Angels founder Therese Wickbom said that record would be remembered with another mass head shave this weekend.
Money raised would help fill kai boxes the charity planned to give to 400 families this Christmas, and buy presents for up to 1600 children.
If more money was raised than needed, any leftover funds would go to other projects helping vulnerable tamariki (children) thrive, she said.
Ten years ago Kerikeri’s Bald Angels set a world record by shaving 462 heads in an hour. Peter de Graaf
Wickbom did not expect to set a new record, with about 50 people signed up so far.
“But we hold the record now, and no one’s beaten it. No one’s going to beat that,” she said.
What she did hope to replicate from the 2015 event was the atmosphere.
“The thing that everyone remembers about that day 10 years ago was the sheer number of people and the wairua or the goodness in the room. It was palpable and it was so unifying,” she said.
“We’d love to recreate that again, and I don’t think we need 3000 people there to do that. I think we could do it with 100 or so people.”
Among those sacrificing their locks on Saturday, will be Forest and Bird’s Northland conservation advocate Dean Baigent-Mercer.
It would be a big change for Baigent-Mercer, who had been growing his dreadlocks for 20 years and was once described as “David Attenborough with dreads and attitude”.
Baigent-Mercer said he was taking part because even the most basic needs of many young Northlanders were not being met.
He hoped the money raised would help children who in later life would have to deal with difficult problems such as climate change and forest collapse.
Once described as “David Attenborough with dreads and attitude”, Forest and Bird conservation advocate Dean Baigent-Mercer will sacrifice his trademark dreadlocks this weekend. Supplied
“We need to look after the next generation so they can deal with the stuff they end up inheriting,” he said.
Wickbom said this weekend’s Shave 4 Kids Anniversary Challenge aimed to raise at least $40,000, with $24,000 already in the bag.
The 2015 head-shave raised $62,000 but Wickbom said times were tougher now.
The event would take place from 2-5pm on Saturday, 22 November, at the Turner Centre on Cobham Road, after the Kerikeri Half Marathon.
Entry was free, Wickbom said.
“But we would like people to koha, because this is about raising funds for vulnerable children.”
Anyone who wanted to take part in the mass head shave could register on the website or on the day.
Wickbom said the 2015 world record head shave was not only a great unifying event, it also left a visible mark on the town with almost 500 people losing their hair in the space of an hour.
Puzzled patrons at restaurant she owned at the time would approach her in a whisper and ask what was going on in Kerikeri, she said.
The Bald Angels’ kai boxes and Christmas gifts will be distributed to families selected by the charity’s partner agencies.
Those agencies included iwi social services, health providers, schools, Hospice, Plunket, Women’s Refuge and police.
The Bald Angels’ first mass head shave in 2012 raised $45,000 for children in the care of Hospice Mid Northland.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
