A sponsored head shave at a Hamilton hairdressing salon helped raise more than $9,000 yesterday for the fight against cancer.

Hairdressers at Salon Visage on Reid Street, Hamilton, sheared several children and adults who signed up to raise money for St Baldrick’s Foundation, a children’s cancer charity.

Sean Ramlal, a veteran donor who raised $5,826, said: “It seemed like an easy thing to do, to grow my hair and shave it, but it’s almost turned into a habit and 13 years later I’m still doing it.”

Mr Ramlal said that he did his first head-shave about 13 years ago when he lived in the United states.

He joked that he first signed up because it was a way to raise money for charity that “didn’t involve running or exercise”.

Mr Ramlal added he had his head shaved every year since and had raised a total of around $50,000.

He said: “I’ve done it three times in Bermuda, nine times in New York and once in Chicago.

“It’s been a great experience and it’s been a great way to meet people, find a hairdresser and just raise money for a really great cause – funding childhood cancer research.”

The annual St Baldrick’s fundraiser supports child cancer research and has participants around the world.

The Bermuda Cancer and Health Centre joins forces with the St Baldrick's Foundation every year to organise the event.

Flo Pedro, who raised $3,298, said that she committed to the cut as a way to honour her mother, who did the same thing more than 20 years ago “with a razor and shaving foam”.

She added: “It was a scary thing because shaving your head then meant everyone knew you had cancer, but now I think, with St Baldrick’s, people are just having more fun and it’s not just a mark any more.”

Ms Pedro said that she wanted to raise money for St Baldrick’s because she had had difficulties with pregnancy and understood the fear of losing a child.

She added that she dyed her hair a week before the shave and that “making a fool of myself seems like a great way to give back”.