Hair goes funny to raise some money!

I’m dying my hair BLUE!!!

This isn’t my normal Azure-related content. For a start, it’s written by me and my wife. If you follow me on Twitter (@Karl_ITNerd), you’ll know why we’re writing this post!

So it’s actually happening, there’s no backing out now!! On Friday, June 25th I’ll be dying my hair ‘Azure’ blue and we’re going to try to raise some money for charity.

How did we get here?

So, anyone that knows me will know that my wife is pretty funny and ensures that I never take myself too seriously!! On May 9th, my phone started to go a bit nuts with Twitter notifications. I had no idea what was going on until I opened Twitter and saw that my wife had tagged me in the following tweet (Click on the image to go to open the tweet on Twitter).

Blue Hair Original Tweet

This was something I had mentioned, off the cuff, not being serious with ACTUALLY doing it! For context, about 17 years ago, when my eldest daughter was still a baby, I had pink hair. So I have previous for this sort of stuff!!

Pink Hair Original Tweet

As you can see below, the #CloudFamily and wider tech communities threw their support behind the tweet meaning that my wife had her 50 likes within a couple of hours!! Thanks Everyone :P

Blue Hair Support Tweet 1

Blue Hair Support Tweet 2

As I write this article, there are 126 likes on the original tweet!!

Let’s help others

With getting to 50 like so quickly, I realised that there was no escaping my fate. No backing out from having my hair dyed blue! So I decided that it would be good to try and raise some money to support a few charities at the same time.

We’ve chosen 4 charities to support with this fundraising effort. They are as follows:

  • Black Girls CODE: Chosen because of our links to the USA and because we feel really strongly that the tech community is so inclusive and welcoming, and a way to even further model those core values is by providing more opportunities for underrepresented groups to get the STEM training and education necessary to enter the tech world. Black Girls CODE does this, specifically with the vision to “increase the number of women of color in the digital space by empowering girls of color ages 7 to 17 to become innovators in STEM fields, leaders in their communities, and builders of their own futures through exposure to computer science and technology.”

  • In2scienceUK: Chosen because of our links to the UK (we live here!! :) ). As we mentioned above, it is important to us that, as a community, we continue to promote diversity and inclusivity within STEM careers. In2ScienceUK promote “Social Mobility and Diversity in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.”

  • Action Mental Health: As two people who have had our struggles with mental health over the years we understand that the last year or more has been really difficult to get through. It’s important to us that we support a charity whose mission is to help people going through struggles with their mental wellbeing. Action Mental Health are a Northern Ireland based charity whose mission is to change the lives of people like you and I who could be living with mental ill health. They also promote “resilience and well-being to future generations.”

  • Tu Tam Orphanage in Vietnam: Suggested by Isidora Katanic (@IsidoraKatanic). Most of your will know Isi from her excellent community work, as a Microsoft MVP and from hosting “Head in the Cloud, Heart in the Community” podcast with Holly Lehman (@Lehman_Holly). Isidora visited the Tu Tam Orphanage in Vietnam in early 2020, just before COVID19 turned our world upside down. You can read more about her experience here.

How is it going to work?

We’re going to use Just Giving to fundraise for these 4 awesome charities. Any funds raised will be equally distributed between them.

In order to maintain transparency, my friend and fellow community member Richard Hooper (@Pixel_Robots) has agreed to look after the distribution of whatever funds are raised.

How can you contribute?

I would love it if the community could get behind this and help to raise some money for these worthy charities. I know that everyone’s situation is different so if you can’t contribute, there is absolutely no pressure.

If you feel you are able to contribute, you can do so at this link.

Thanks alot for taking the time to read this article. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions.