I'm shaving my head. Not because I want to. Because my hair is falling out. And not like it often does for an aging male like myself. I’m losing hair at an aggressively rapid pace, like a shedding Bernese Mountain Dog. Shedding is annoying, so the hair has to go.

On November 2nd, I’ll be able to shave my head for a good cause in the hack/reduce & Boston Big Data go Big and go Bald for Child Cancer Research.

Losing my hair and shaving my head is actually old news for me. The exact same thing happened in the first grade when I was 7 years old. All my hair just fell out. That's when I learned that I had a condition called Alopecia, which caused me to be completely bald for the next 6-7 years of my life.

Luckily, hair loss due to Alopecia is only cosmetic and my hair eventually grew back, but during those years, I was constantly asked by other kids (and a surprising number of adults) "do you have cancer?" and "are you going to die?"

Even at the time, I understood that these questions highlighted how incredibly lucky I am that I’m completely healthy (in some ways Alopecia is caused by an overactive immune system that has actually made me super healthy). 

However, hair loss for children is often a side effect of cancer treatments, and I've always wondered what it must feel like for those affected by childhood cancer who have to face the same questions that I did but with very different answers. 

Hopefully, with further research, no kids and families will be faced with the prospect of childhood cancer again. 

This St. Baldrick's event will be a great way to take a haircut that needs to happen anyway, and use it to help further the research into the specific types of cancer that only affect children. With funding for continued research, childhood cancer can be cured. The goal is to ensure that every kid will be able to live without the worry of cancer and go on to lead happy and productive lives.