You can support Blue Star Families, clean up your look, and do a good deed — all from the comfort of your own home thanks to the #HomeHairCutChallenge.
There are some things you just can’t shake, even years after the last time you laced up your boots. I’ve been out of the Marine Corps now for almost as long as I was in, and yet I still can’t leave my house without a belt on, I still call the young lady at the drive-through of Dunkin’ Donuts “ma’am,” and maybe most importantly, I still get my hair cut every other week.
That is, until this whole coronavirus thing started. Since then, my little family, like so many others around the country, have been spending a great deal of time at home. We’re very fortunate that I can work from the house, that we have lots of outdoor spaces nearby to help us pass the time, and above all else, that we’re healthy and safe.
But there’s been trouble brewing in the Hollings household ever since my barber closed. That trouble, you can probably guess by now, has been all this hair that keeps growing out of my rapidly aging noggin. Most of it is brown… some of it is grey… and a whole lot of it needed to go.
I was beginning to worry that I would soon know what it was like to be able to part my hair again (something I haven’t been able to do since high school), but then I came across the #HomeHairCutChallenge, launched into the digital ether by the good folks at Blue Star Families.
Blue Star Families is an organization founded by military spouses that aims to help connect and empower military families. They have over 150,000 members all over the world, and play a direct role in the lives of more than 1.5 million military families each year. The work the people at Blue Star Families do is not only essential for our service members and their families, but it also plays an important part in maintaining morale, supporting those who need it, and as a direct result, benefitting our nation’s overall military readiness.
Which brings us to the #HomeHairCutChallenge Blue Star Families recently launched. The campaign is simple: folks still need haircuts, but until concerns about spreading the coronavirus subside, we aren’t able to visit our usual barber shops and salons. Instead of letting my hair grow until I started looking like Sasquatch, my wife gave me a spectacular cut using nothing more than my beard trimmer and the two heads I had managed not to lose since I’d bought it.
My wife and I then donated what I would have paid for a haircut (along with a few extra bucks) to Blue Star Families to help support their efforts to serve and support the military community.
Participating is easy — here’s a quick rundown from their website:
To participate, simply perform a DIY haircut on yourself or someone else. Then, let us know that you’ve joined the challenge by posting a video or photo of your efforts on social media and tag @BlueStarFamilies along with the hashtag #HomeHaircutChallenge. Be sure to include whether you #NailedIt or #FailedIt, and tag and challenge a friend to keep the movement going!
I think it’s safe to say that my wife nailed it, but honestly, it would have been just as much fun if she hadn’t. Doing stuff like this isn’t just important because it helps support a good cause, it’s also as an important reminder not to take ourselves too seriously, even amid these serious times.
Whether you end up with a good haircut or a bad one, you’ll feel better for trying — and for supporting the incredible work they do at Blue Star Families.
So consider this me calling you out. Do you think you can do better than my wife did? Then prove it.
Once you’re done, don’t forget to donate to Blue Star Families by following this link.
