Three barber chairs were set up in the corner of the Granville Island Brewery last weekend.
One was occupied by Dave Babych, famous for both his mustache as well as being a former Vancouver Canucks defenceman, and sitting next to him was Kiley Hendriks, better known as Prevail, one of the principal MCs of hip hop group Swollen Members.
They were in the capable hands of sharped-dressed barbers from Regal, most of whom dressed like they tended bar in a turn-of-the-century speakeasy, with the exception of Ken Pappas of Richmond Barbers manning the third chair wearing a barber’s blue smock and cutting through Vancouver Whitecaps FC defender Jordan Harvey’s facial growth.
The date was Nov. 1 which, playing by Movember rules, is when fundraiser participants must shave off their facial hair in the month-long quest to grow a mustache to raise awareness for men’s cancer prevention and mental health. The movement raised $33.9 million in Canada last year, with most of those funds going towards men’s health programs, according to Movember Canada.
It’s the second time Babych had his ‘stache shaved off willingly, the first time was for last year’s Movember and before that, when he required stitches after getting a stick in the face during his National Hockey League days.
“I’m a little nervous again, but it’s for a great cause,” he said before going to the barber’s chair. “When I first grew one, I had no idea why I did it. It just stayed.” The cookie duster made its lasting impression, as it is still included in various top-10 lists for the best mustachioed NHLers.
While Harvey said he is known for having the fullest mustache on the current Whitecaps’ roster, Prevail doesn’t make any sort of claim in the hair realm so it wasn’t any great loss when his three-month-old beard was shorn with a straight razor blade.
“I usually have a little something going on, particularly in the fall and winter. It feels natural at that time of the year, letting it grow. Definitely in the spring and summer I’m clean-shaven,” he said. “I’ll have to see if the beard will catch-up with the mustache.”
Prevail, part of a group from his local watering hole the Regal Beagle Bar and Grill, immediately agreed to be a part of the campaign.
“You know what, I advocate for the preventative approach. I can understand it can be embarrassing, you can put yourself in a position where you’re fearful of the outcome…” he said. “At the end of the day, would you rather be slightly embarrassed for half an afternoon or potentially be able to curtail something that could lead to saving your life?”
Movember was started in the late 1990s by a group of men in Australia who wanted to grow facial hair for charity, one of which included the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. In the mid-2000s, another group of Australians organized an event to raise awareness for prostate cancer, and it was this group that became the Movember Foundation. The movement reached Canada in 2007 with several awareness and fund-raising events held during November.
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