“I associate long hair with rock and metal…but it doesn’t mean it can’t be done with short hair,” he explains. And Aaron (Azza to his friends) would know. As front man of metal band Xenos, his head banging skills were afforded to him by his dreadlocks. But these weren’t just any dreads; these knotted ropes were nearly five years in the making. The last time Aaron cut his hair was in 2005, but in November last year, that all changed. As part of The Leukaemia Foundation’s World’s Greatest Shave, Aaron cut off every one of his 40 golden locks. And then he sold them. Once $3200 in donations was locally collected for the cause, Aaron held a special gig at Kokopelli’s Ice Bar and Kafé in Portland to reach his goal sum of $5000. Thanks to the performers donating their wages on the night, a charity auction (including a professionally framed Eagles of Death Metal poster) and Aaron’s dreadlocks (which sold between $5 and $150 each), the total amount raised came to exactly $5,405.41. Even Aaron’s grandmother attended the fundraiser, more than happy to donate some cash to remove a dreaded dread.
“I had a hairdresser there to shave my head…but just about everyone there donated money to cut off a dreadlock. Everyone got into it. We weren’t expecting it to work out that well,” says Aaron cheerfully.
This year, over 11,500 people will be diagnosed with blood cancer or a related disorder in Australia. That’s 31 people every day. Blood cancer is the most common cause of cancer death in our country behind lung cancer. Aaron, who still slips into present tense when talking about his much-loved hair, was inspired to decapitate his dreads after hearing a family member with leukaemia give a moving speech on his wedding day.
Not surprisingly, Aaron was incredibly nervous before his big shave. “Everyone could tell I was really quiet; I was starting to panic a bit. I was worried what I’d look like with a bald head…When they started shaving I started freaking out, so I asked someone to go get me a beer,” he recalls. (Is there anything that beer can’t do?)
Contrary to popular belief, deadlocks aren’t “just knotty hair.” According to Aaron, they took over 40 hours to put in. You’re meant to twist them every day. You have to wear shower caps. If you get them wet, drying dreads takes up to an hour. You have to wash your hair with a special dread shampoo (every week or two — not never — thank you very much). “It was a lot of maintenance,” Aaron sighs, “but being able to jump in the shower and not worry about it at all was awesome.”
These days, people regularly approach Aaron in the street and confide that they have a family member with leukaemia; they have leukaemia themselves; or that they know someone who has passed away from the disease. Even the original singer in Xenos, Aaron’s band, lost his mother to a range of cancers, including leukaemia, a month before the big shave. “He was there on the night and he was really stoked. He said his mum would have been proud. There were a lot of moments like that when losing my hair seemed irrelevant.”
So what’s it like post-dreads? “It feels weird. They were pretty long and I used to tie them back a lot… I was used to carrying a weight behind me so I was a little bit off balance after they were shaved off,” laughs Aaron. Friends who don’t recognise Aaron sometimes snub him in the street. Even his Kelpie tilted her head in confusion when he arrived home bald. But there’s another side to it too. Kids no longer tap their mum on the shoulder and point at “the man with the funny hair” and the elderly now speak to him like a human being. “When you have dreads, people make all these assumptions about you. It’s pretty funny that I get more respect just because I don’t have dreads anymore, but it’s frustrating at the same time.”
Aaron misses twirling his dreads. He misses head banging when he’s on stage. He misses the friendly, all-knowing nod he used to get from dreadlocked strangers. Lately, he’s been channelling Peter Garrett in Midnight Oil instead of Jonathan Davis in KoЯn. Although there’s a significant amount of regrowth, dreads are out of the question for now.
“I miss [my dreadlocks] but I was happy to get rid of them for a good cause. It’s really rewarding and it’s a great thing for the community. You get other people involved and really put yourself out there… and it’s nothing compared to what the people with leukaemia and their families have to go through.”
Having always been attracted to Melbourne’s music scene, Aaron has decided to move here. He hopes to play benefit gigs for other charities and put his Diploma in Welfare to good use by incorporating music therapy into youth counselling work.
BY SOFIA LEVIN
