Shaving my head (and maybe my beard)

In Shaving my head, I announced that I would be having my head shaved tomorrow, but not my beard.

On Wednesday 25 October 2017, I’m going to get my head shaved (just the top, not my beard) as part of St. Baldrick’s fundraiser for pediatric cancer.  I missed the head shaving last year, as I was at the iGEM Jamboree in Boston, or I would have done it then.

The head-shaving event is being organized locally by the Treehouse Childhood Cancer Initiative at UCSC.  Cancer genomics has become a major research topic at UCSC, and pediatric cancers are a particular focus, so this fund raiser has particular significance for UCSC.  Last year they raised $29,488 with 28 shavees.  I don’t expect to raise anywhere close to $1000, personally, because I’m not willing to badger my friends and family to make donations, but I hope that a few people will be willing to contribute token amounts.

If you feel like giving to a good cause (or just want to see a picture of me with no hair on top, to be posted after the event), you can donate at https://www.stbaldricks.org/participants/Karplus2017.

…

Last night, I got permission from my wife to have my beard shaved, but only if $1000 is raised by 1pm Pacific time, Wed 2017 Sept 25. (I’m scheduled to be shaved at 1:15).  Because I’d only raised $60 so far, I figured my beard was safe, but some of my colleagues have decided they want to see my chin, so an extra $400 was raised this morning.  There is a chance now that I’ll be beardless after tomorrow (something I haven’t done for about 25 years—the last time I did it, for a Halloween costume, my wife threatened to divorce me if I shaved it again, which is why I needed her permission for the $1000 offer).

More recently, I’ve colored my beard for St. Patrick’s Day, but not removed it.

The link for donating again:

https://www.stbaldricks.org/participants/Karplus2017

Update: we hit the $1000.  Someone asked how much for the eyebrows—if we hit $2000, I’ll let the eyebrows go also.