No-Shave November is a popular, annual social media and fundraising movement encouraging participants to forgo typical hair removal routines for 30 days. This month-long event uses the growth of body hair as a visual campaign to generate awareness. It has grown from a grassroots effort into a global movement supported by a dedicated foundation.
Defining the Purpose and Primary Goal
No-Shave November is primarily a fundraising campaign supporting cancer awareness, education, and research across all forms of the disease. The core philosophy is to embrace hair growth, which many cancer patients lose during chemotherapy treatments, as a symbol of solidarity and a conversational tool.
The movement provides a tangible way for individuals to contribute financially by pledging the money they would have spent on hair maintenance to cancer charities. Consumers spend an estimated $60 to $150 each month on grooming products, including razors, shaving creams, and waxing. Participants are asked to donate those saved dollars to support organizations focused on cancer prevention and patient support services.
Funds raised are directed to various non-profit partners that focus on cancer advocacy, education, and research. Beneficiaries have included organizations supporting patient aid, prevention programs, and research into various types of cancer. The emphasis remains on using the act of growing hair to spark discussions about early detection and the continuing need for cancer support.
The Guidelines for Participation
Participation in No-Shave November is inclusive, welcoming men, women, and children to forgo their regular grooming habits. The challenge traditionally begins on November 1st, requiring participants to start with a clean-shaven face. For the following 30 days, the simple rule is to put down the razor and avoid shaving, trimming, or waxing any body hair.
The movement encourages creativity; men typically focus on facial hair, and women often choose to skip leg or underarm shaving. While most participants embrace the full month of growth, official guidelines allow exceptions to accommodate workplace requirements or professional dress codes. Minimal trimming or maintenance is permitted in these cases, provided the spirit of growing hair and raising funds is maintained.
Individuals can formally participate by signing up on the official website, which enables them to create a personal fundraising page to collect donations. Simply skipping a shave and donating the saved money to a recognized cancer charity still fulfills the movement’s goal, as the focus is on donation and the visual awareness generated by hair growth.
Distinguishing No-Shave November from Movember
No-Shave November and Movember are separate initiatives often confused because both involve growing facial hair during the same month for charitable reasons. The most significant distinction lies in the scope of hair growth and the charitable focus of each movement. No-Shave November encourages the growth of any body hair, including beards, mustaches, leg hair, or armpit hair, to raise funds for general cancer awareness and research across all cancer types.
Movember, by contrast, is a highly targeted movement specifically focused on men’s health issues. Participants are strictly instructed to grow and groom only a mustache; beards and goatees are explicitly disallowed under the movement’s rules. This distinction reflects Movember’s narrow charitable scope, which focuses on prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and men’s mental health and suicide prevention.
The Movember Foundation is an established global organization with a defined mission to change the face of men’s health, using the mustache, or “Mo,” as its specific symbol. No-Shave November, while supporting cancer research, has a more open-ended approach, allowing a broader range of participants and forms of hair growth to symbolize solidarity with cancer patients who lose their hair.