Ladies, say goodbye to your boyfriend’s/best guy friend’s cleanly shaven face and hello to the grizzly bear that will soon replace it. The infamous “no-shave November” has arrived and, lets face it, dudes are thrilled to put away their razor for the month and show off that sexy ‘stache.
Although we recognize this month when we see it being advertised through the beards around us, we may not exactly realize the importace behind it. After all, no-shave November is much more than a time where laziness is OK.
The primary goal of no-shave November is to raise awareness for prostate and testicular cancer. Currently, there are two different organizations that center around the same idea of men not shaving in order to promote their health.
One of these organizations is Movember, which is a result of the Movember Foundation directed by Mark Hedstrom. The Foundation raised $21 million dollars just last year. According to Hedstrom, the point of the month is to spark conversation between men or men and women centered on men’s health. Movember now takes place in 21 different countries.
The other and more well-known organization is no-shave November. This organization just recently paired with the American Cancer Society and asks men to donate the time they would otherwise be using to groom themselves to the American Cancer Society by doing something to help the cause or simply educating others. Moreover, this organization goes as far as to ask women to skip shaving their legs to promote the cause.
You may be wondering how you can participate besides the obvious way. Organizations encourage donating all of the money you would usually spend during November shaving, trimming, waxing, threading and salon visits and donate it to cancer charity. No-shave November pools together money from many different participants and in the past has resulted in a solid chunk that can do wonders for a family fighting against this awful disease. Although we women cannot grow facial hair (and may be pretty darn reluctant to not shave our legs for an entire month…sorry American Cancer Society) we can still donate to the worthwhile cause and encourage the men in our lives to participate.
Let’s all use this month to step up and do our part in the hopes that this will no longer be a disease affecting so many loved ones.