(NewsNation) — Folks, put away those razors. No-Shave November is here.
The annual event is a monthlong endeavor in which participants forgo grooming to raise awareness for cancer. Funds that would normally go toward monthly hair maintenance are instead donated to cancer foundations.
No-Shave November is a nonprofit organization spawned in 2009 by the Hill family, according to the group’s website. Matthew Hill died from colon cancer in 2007.
The goal, the website reads, “is to grow awareness by embracing our hair, which many cancer patients lose, and letting it grow wild and free.”
The movement has spread nationwide and more than $12 million has been raised for cancer organizations. No-Shave November has partnered with 13 groups this year.
Participants, friends and family can track their donation progress via the online leaderboard, which already shows about $85,000 raised by more than 200 people and 150 teams. Personal fundraising pages can be shared for hair-growers to help achieve their goal.
For those with a strict dress code, fear not. No-Shave November allows for grooming and trimming.
Body hair — think chest, legs and armpits — counts, too.
There’s another group working to promote men’s health in the month of November.
Started in Australia in 2003, Movember — a combination of mustache and November — works in similar fashion to raise money for a variety of men’s health initiatives. In its nearly 20 years, Movember has funded more than 1,200 men’s health projects around the world, according to the group’s website.
As the name would suggest, participants of Movember grow a mustache for the 30-day period. But as the organization has expanded, so too have its challenges. Participants can also run or walk 60 miles during the month for the 60 men lost to suicide every hour, the group states.
To achieve its goals, the website reads, Movember “unite(s) experts from around the world to collaborate on projects that will fundamentally change the way men in need are treated and supported.”
In total, Movember has raised more than $1 billion for suicide prevention as well as prostate and testicular cancer awareness. Donations can be given directly to individual participants or teams, or to the organization itself.
Mustache growers are asked to start freshly shaven Nov. 1 and “carefully craft” their “Mo” throughout the month.
