Just a little antsy, East Dallas native Tiffany Way prepares to make good on a promise to shave her head if she could raise $40,000 — more than 100 people showed up to watch the head-shaving event.
The head shave has been a popular fundraising gimmick for a while now. We’ve seen it — a well-liked, charismatic charity supporter vows to shave his head if donors contribute x amount of cash. Like, a few years ago, YMCA capital campaign chairman Greg Courtwright volunteered to liberate his scalp from his frizzy fro. But, with all due respect to Courtwright and his tresses, the buzz cut fit him just fine. A bald man, even a formerly shaggy headed one, is remarkable only to himself.
The stunt becomes a bit more shocking when performed by a woman, especially one whose long, full, bouncy brunette locks have been the lifelong source of envy.
Take Bryan Adams High School alum Tiffany Way. Full disclosure: Tiffany and I were junior-high BFFs. There is a good chance that the layer of ozone over East Dallas thinned considerably during the summer of 1990 as a result of our unrestrained AquaNet aerosol spray usage. However, I could only aspire to teasing my blonde strings into anything resembling Tiffany’s — her big, curly, bouncy, brunette bouffant was the gold standard, the beau idéal, of 90s hair. And she possessed the bold personality, strong character and sharp wit to back up her beauty.
Fast forward to present day. Tiffany is a mother of two sons, Colby and Austin, and a commercial insurance broker at the firm All Risks Ltd. Her hair settled, softened and stayed one of her defining physical features, long and thick and shiny. Her attractive disposition and enormous heart also remains.
Tiffany Way and her envy-inducing hair.
Tiffany’s desire to help pediatric cancer patients in some significant way started percolating after a day of volunteering via the Texas Promise Circle (which provides activities and events for children throughout cancer treatment) at the at the Dell Children’s Blood and Cancer Center. It is something she started doing two years ago and with much enthusiasm — she typically goes dressed as alter ego Wendi Sillytoes, a clown in a gigantic fluffy red wig.
“The kids in treatment are so resilient — they are walking around the room, playing games with me while hooked up to poles having chemo injected into their systems … their strength is amazing, spirit embracing and their smiles are contagious,” she says, explaining what she loves about the gig. But that particular visit left her brooding. Sitting in traffic the next day, she began thinking of her own youth and comparing it to those of these children with whom she regularly spends her time.
“When I reminisce of my childhood … I did not have to wear a ski cap in the summer to cover my balding head. I did not have needle marks and bruises on my wrists and arms from being tested all the time. These are the visible things I did not have to go through,” she says. “And as a parent, my heart ached for those parents sitting in plastic chairs hours a day — several days a week with their fighter.”
“I wanted to do more.”
Sitting in her car that day, one year ago, she made up her mind to raise $40,000 for the Jeff Gordon Children’s Foundation, a national nonprofit that serves cancer-stricken kids and supports research and treatment. The figure related to the fact that she was turning 40 and sensed some sort of lurking mid-life crisis.
This, she thought, would be far preferable to spending $40k on a sports car. The plan to shave her head after meeting the set standard was prefect, providing the aesthetics of a mid-life crisis, yet rendering an utterly positive end-product — thanks to the charity Locks of Love, the harvest yielded from Tiffany’s head will beget a wig for some young girl who has lost her hair as a side effect of chemotherapy.
Plus, Tiffany says, “I figured a lot of people would pay decent money to see me bald.”
She was excited and confident about her idea, though it was not without apprehension.
“A woman’s hair is something extremely personal,” she says. And, especially when she started her job 17 years ago, she took her outward looks seriously.
“I am in sales, so my appearance is extremely important,” she says. “I have struggled with normal female insecurities with weight gain and other appearance issues, to the point that early on in my career I would wear my hair straight to all client meetings and wear glasses, attempting to look smarter, because in my head my curly hair was not a professional look.”
But once she made the commitment, she says, she worried way more about not raising the money than about how she would look with a smooth scalp.
“I do not have the type of friends that are buying $10,000 tables to support a presidential candidate, attending silent auctions or funding their own charities, so $40,000 is a big hill to climb,” she said when she first started.
In addition to her friends’ and family’s help, she secured corporate support from both her own firm and others including Frisco-based Markel Corporation, which was her biggest financial contributor, she says. “They brought in 151 individual contributions plus corporate matching, totaling $16,015,” she says of Markel.
Committed donations hit $40,000 the night before the shave, which alleviated some nerves. “I did not realize how much stress I was carrying about not reaching my goal until I hit the goal.”
“I was pretty excited about the actual act of shaving my head … I knew it would be a great party for a wonderful charity, but I was scared for the morning after, waking up and not having hair stuck to my face and all over the place like usual … kind of like a crazy night of drinking and you wake up and think, ‘what did I do last night,’ but I haven’t felt that way at all.”
Right before the shave, she tallied the total donations and saw $54, 000.
“I became so overwhelmed with the amount that I was thrilled to be shaving my head. It was the least that I could do for all of the children and families and those that had donated. For me, it is, was, an honor to shave my head for the cause.”
“Reality truly set in when they placed the chair in the middle of our courtyard and I looked out onto the patio and everyone was there — staring at me. Sh*t got real.” —Tiffany Way
Her company recently moved its office space, so her head shaving took place at an open house attended by all of their business partners; she had an audience of 100 plus people.
“Maybe the office party was the major distraction I needed to help me not think about what was going to happen,” she says. (She lost memory of about three hours after the head shave, she says, which she attributes to adrenaline overkill.)
Fundraising experts on the site better-fundraising-ideas.com say that in order to be successful, “a charity head shave should involve one of those larger-than-life individuals found in every community.
The advice proved accurate in Tiffany’s case — she far surpassed her goal and, to date, she has earned $65,000.
“I do not remember anything from the second I stood up after my head was shaved until I left my office. There are tons of photos out there that I do not remember taking, but I was clearly coherent, not intoxicated and happy.” — Tiffany Way
Jeff Gordon himself even reached out to thank Tiffany, directing a Facebook video at her. “Wow, Tiffany Way … amazing job raising $65,000 for pediatric cancer [related treatment and research] ,” Gordon says. “That’s incredible. I’m so proud of you. All of us at the foundation are proud of you. The dedication that you have toward raising money and awareness is going to change lives for many kids out there … thank you and keep up the great work.” The video has been viewed more than 40,000 times and counting. In the past days she has received 100-plus Facebook friend requests.
Tiffany says she’s been floored by and feels slightly awkward about all the attention. “I like my personal life and was not expecting some of the publicity that has come along with this. But, if it’s raising money and getting people talking about the Jeff Gordon Children’s Foundation, thinking about and talking about what they can do to help children and families battling cancer, I’ll accept it.
Tiffany Way regularly volunteers at the Children’s Blood and Cancer Center.
Of course, hairless Tiffany looks as good as ever, and decidedly more badass.
“Since I do not have to look at myself, it is easy to forget that I am bald,” she says. “Anytime I see my reflection in a window or see myself in the mirror, I giggle — but I have not had any negative thoughts.”
In fact, I have never felt more feminine and pretty in my entire life. I have never been a girly girl, but now I am making a conscience effort to wear jewelry and fix my make up.” —Tiffany Way
Mostly she looks forward to returning to the Children’s Blood and Cancer Center to show the kiddos her new hair-free head.
When she dons her clown costume this time, she will forgo the wig. That was one of her dreams since starting the fundraiser. (“‘Why don’t you shave your head and perform as Wendi, bald like the kids?’ I actually said these words to myself out loud in a conversation with myself,” Tiffany confides.)
“I will be bald like most of them.”
Interested in participating in the area chapter of Texas Promise Circle? “Like” the group’s Facebook page for more information.
