After skydiving for the first time this year, a Bermudian aquarist decided he was ready for something truly terrifying – a hair cut for charity.

Alex (Dready) Hunter, 41, is known in the community for his perpetual barefeet and dreads that he has been growing for 20 years.

But today Dready may have to get a new nickname as he plans to cut off his hair and beard at the Robin Hood Pub & Restaurant to raise funds for cancer charity PALS and the Dame Marjorie Bean Hope Academy, in Devonshire, for children with special needs.

He has already raised more than $10,000, purely through word of mouth.

"I have talked about cutting my hair for a long time," he said. "I probably started talking about it about 10 years after I started wearing my hair like this."

Mr. Hunter trained as a marine biologist at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland. Today, he maintains the large fish tank at XL Capital Ltd., and also helps with the annual Bermuda Institute for Ocean Sciences (BIOS) summer science camp.

He said because he spends a lot of time in the water, the hair style can be uncomfortable and cumbersome. "My hair is wet a lot," he said.

But he said he resisted cutting off his hair and thick beard for a long time, purely out of a fear of change. A health scare with his heart last year changed his point of view.

"I didn't want to do it while I was sick," he said. "Sometimes it is a bad idea to make a major change when you are in a bad place.

"This year I am feeling so much better and my health issues are resolved. I decided the reason I wasn't doing it was because I was scared of change. That is a stupid reason not to do something."

So this year he decided to do a few things he always said he would never do.

"I went skydiving for the first time this year," he said. "I never thought I would do that because I use to be petrified of planes."

Then he figured if he could face his fears and jump out of a plane, he could probably also tackle his hair, which he grew because he was interested in Rastafarianism. "I was raised as a pretty strict Catholic," he said. "I was raised with religious feelings. But like a lot of rebellious young people in Bermuda I was attracted to Rastafarianism. I was very into it. I am still attuned to it, if you like, but I am not religious anymore by any stretch of the imagination."

He said when he first grew his hair, there was a lot of resistance from people in Bermuda. "The reaction was not good," he said. "You find out who the important people are in your life. It is amazing how people will reject you just over how you look. It is ridiculous.

"I think dreads are a lot more accepted these days than they were back then. In Britain, where I lived for a good part of the 1980s, a lot of white people had dreads. It was almost more accepted there. It wasn't an unusual thing to have them in Britain at that time."

He said the reaction to him cutting his hair and beard off has been largely positive.

"I have so many good friends," he said. "I think a lot of people are excited. I have looked the same way for a long time. I have had my beard longer than my hair. I have had a few people ask me not to cut my hair, but most people are like 'good for you'."

He said the decision to cut his hair was not something he undertook lightly. "My dreads have been a part of my life for a long time," he said.

"I don't want people to think this is trivial for me. It is a huge decision, but I am really nervous about it. The temptation was to just go away and do it and not tell anyone."

He was inspired by St. Baldrick's Day, usually in early March, when people around the world shave their heads to raise money for children with cancer.

"I thought it would be selfish not to use this opportunity to raise money for charity," he said.

He offered his hair to a charity called Locks of Love that creates wigs made of real hair for cancer patients.

"They don't accept donations of dreadlocks," Mr. Hunter said. "Maybe they don't have much demand for dreadlocks."

He chose Hope Academy as one of his charities because he met some of the students there while maintaining a fish tank in the children's ward at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

"I visited the school recently and one of the children recognised me from the hospital," said Mr. Hunter.

"He is a really cool kid. They do a great job down there at Hope Academy. They have limited resources and everyone is fighting for government funds. It seems a shame that an organisation like that should have to struggle for funds."

And he said choosing PALS as his other charity was a "no-brainer".

"The parents of several of my friends have been helped by PALS," he said.

On the night of the big chop, his sister, Stephanie, will wield the scissors for him, as she has training in hairdressing. He is also being assisted by friends Dr. Samantha Price and Lisa LeBlanc.

"I don't want to know how much we have raised anymore," he said. "I have stopped asking. I just didn't want any expectations.

"It is a tough year for a lot of people, and for a lot of reasons companies cannot be as generous as they could in the past.

"But I had to do it now while my mind was made up. No matter how much I raise, whether it is $500 or $20,000 it is more money than either of these charities had before."

He said he was grateful to all the people who had supported his efforts and donated to the cause.

He was also grateful to Robin Hood for providing a venue.

People are asked to donate money through the PALS website or through the PALS office.

Donors can go to their website at www.pals.bm and type Alex Hunter into the message box under donations.

Or people can take a donation directly to the PALS office at 18 Point Finger Road, Paget.

When the fundraising is finished, PALS has agreed to cut Hope Academy for half of the proceeds raised.

For more information, telephone PALS at 236-7257.