After over 18 months of growing, cultivating and nurturing his bushranger-like beard, it took just a few seconds and a couple of swipes of a barber’s clippers for Charlie Dixon to embrace the clean-shaven look again.
Dixon shaved his sizeable beard for Friedreich Ataxia Research Association this morning. It is a charity dedicated to pursuing treatments and a cure for Friedreich Ataxia (FA), a degenerative, generic, neurological disease that appears predominantly in children and teenagers.
Dixon’s former host sisters, Jamie-Lee and Samantha Dwyer, who have lived with FA since their pre-adolescent years, were handed the privilege of being the first to go to work on Charlie’s face with the clippers.
“It gives us such great hope for the future and it’s amazing to see the community really rally behind him for this cause,” Samantha told SUNS TV.
“(He’s going to look) so much better”.
The bearded one, meantime, was a little anxious prior to the shave.
“I’ve been looking forward to getting rid of it but now that the day is today, (I’m a) little bit nervous about how I’m going to look,” Dixon said.
“I can’t thank everyone enough who’s donated.”
Sizeable donations overnight from stadium partner Metricon Homes ($1,000) and the Gold Coast SUNS Football Club ($500) pushed the tally past the $10K target with Dixon raising a total of $11,221.25 for FARA as of 4PM on Friday afternoon.
“It’s been unreal, we’re over $10,000 now,” Dixon said.
“I didn’t think we’d get there but just a massive thanks to everyone who’s donated. It’s an awesome cause and to be this close to my heart.”
Dixon’s is a regular client of Lee Power of retro barber shop Mods and Rockers in Surfers Paradise, and the latter was given the responsibility of finishing the job for Charlie’s Charity Shave, giving the SUNS forward a more youthful look.
“Now looking at Charlie over there, I reckon (we’d take off) a good ten years,” Power said.
“He’s a big baby isn’t he really? A big baby hosting a manly beard.
“I’m actually a little bit scared to take that beard off, we might find out what’s underneath there. I think it’s gonna be a shock for all of us.”
Check out all the behind-the-scenes photos from Charlie's Charity Shave
When the task of the face shave was complete, Power used a technique called “fire singeing (sic)” to burn the last remaining hairs from Dixon’s face to the delight of the small crowd that gathered at Metricon Stadium for the event.
Post shave, a vastly different looking Dixon admitted to feeling weird about his new appearance.
“(I feel) naked,” Dixon said.
“Feels like my face has just been cut in half. It’s a bit weird really, I haven’t felt this way in over 18 months so it’s definitely different.
“The weirdest thing is that I used to hang it onto it a (the beard) bit so now I don’t know what I’m gonna do.”
Jamie-Lee and Samantha both approved of Dixon’s new look, giving him their tick of approval.
“He looks beautiful,” Jamie-Lee said.
“Very handsome,” Samantha added.
It’s not too late to support Charlie’s cause – click to donate now
