Most people put a lot of thought and care into their hair. We usually work with a variety of hair products and styling services to keep our locks in tip-top shape. This is one of the reasons why people were shocked to see Chip Gaines with a cleanly shaved head. The popular co-host of HGTV’s Fixer Upper has been helping people remodel, fix up and sell homes for the past 12 years. He’s been joined in the endeavor with his partner Joanna Gaines. During this time they’ve successfully worked on over 100 different homes. Saying that Chip Gaines is a public figure would be an understatement. So why would someone so in the public eye make such a dramatic change? What’s more, why would he do so to something that most people cultivate and cherish? People have been wondering about this for some time. But the popular host recently opened up and gave his heartfelt explanation. It turns out that his reasons were far more inspiring than anyone could suspect.
The story of Chip’s shaved head actually begins on the opposite end of that extreme. It turns out that he’d been wanting to grow his hair out for some time. It was only when the pandemic and quarantine hit that he decided to run with the idea. However, he notes that in some ways he didn’t really have much choice. The pandemic signaled the long-term closure of most barbershops. People all over the world were experiencing a similar phenomenon as their hair grew longer and longer. However, Chip was somewhat different in delighting in the change. However, the thing about bucket lists is that they exist to be checked off. Chip had kept his hair at a constant length for most of his professional career. It’s easy to see why growing it out might be a long-term itch that just needed to be scratched. But what does someone in that position do after accomplishing that desire? For Chip, it meant going to the opposite extreme. But the reasoning behind the change and the emotions involved aren’t what one might expect. He and his wife were bantering about his hair as they walked into the barbers. But Chip admits that he had a lot of feelings about the whole experience. Even his first sight of himself was filled with emotion as he exclaimed his surprise in seeing a newly bald head.
The answer to why he shaved his head can be found in the third member of the trio walking into the barbershop. The Gaines had met young Baily when the child was going through cancer treatments at St. Jude. This inspired Chip to participate in a charity called “Children with Hair Loss”. The cause helps provide wigs made of real human hair to children who’ve lost their own. Even adults have a difficult time managing hair loss during chemotherapy. So it’s little wonder that the experience can be especially hard for children to handle. One of the biggest issues is that people instantly associate hair loss with cancer. It makes people see a diagnosis rather than a real person who’s fighting that condition. However, with real human hair children can once again walk outdoors without instantly being labeled as cancer patients. It’s a chance to feel at home in the world again. And people like Chip Gaines deserve a lot of credit for making that dream a reality.
