ritakml

Fun(d) Raising tweetup & Kids with cancer initiative overview is a post written by Fun(d)Raising.

Fun(d) Raisers got to meet on a lovely tweetup at Noodles-ABC Ashrafieh and discuss different initiatives to help raising awareness about cancer and specially help unfortunate kids fighting that disease and hopefully win.

This initiative was kicked in by , you can read about it all on her blog. During our meeting Rita introduced her idea more in detail for the tweeps who didn’t know exactly the whole scope of the initiative and proceeded to summarizing what we thought would be a good action plan.
Then of course, suggestions and ideas started pouring in and hopefully all of them will be put into action as part of the initiative or as new ones.

First of all here is more about Rita’s action plan and the different initiative from our meeting

Meeting with the Children Cancer Center in Lebanon (St Jude)
First, Rita went visiting cancer centers and associations to get in touch with them and to know what they actually need. She met with a lovely lady from the Children Cancer Center in Lebanon. She told us the story of St Jude, took us around the center for a tour and discussed with us how we could help. What they honestly and seriously need is money, I mean MONEY as in a lot a lot of money ( operating a cancer center that treats kids for free is not any cheap thing )

We honestly told her that raising that much is not within our scope, but since our community members are active social networking members, we agreed with her that we can help spread the word, awareness and link back to their online donation page. People who donate are kindly requested to add the keyword “Fund(d) Raising” as a comment on their donation. Hopefully then, we will be able to involve many people online inside and outside Lebanon and help spread the word.

During our tour in the center, we met a doctor who stressed that it would be lovely if we can donate wigs and how much difference it makes .

Meeting with Chance
Chance is an organization that also helps treating kids with cancer . We went to one of their meetings, they have a series of events they do to raise money. We can easily help promote those events and spread the word.

Tamanna
We got the word about Tamana from the twitter – Tamanna is actually a wish-list for kids critical illnesses from different centers/hospitals and from different backgrounds. The goal of Tamanna is to simply bring happiness and brighten up the days of a kid going through treatment by simply asking them to make a wish and then granting it .
The wish list includes stuff like get a ps2, have a computer, go on a shopping spree, travel, meet a celebrity…

We got very excited over Tamanna idea since it gives us an easy to do goal list. It is targeted, we can easily create positive change in someone’s life by donating simple objects that parents can’t afford anymore considering the costs of medical treatments.

Wigs or “Mitlik Mitleh”
With summer around the corner, many ladies are heading to hairdressers. Many of us have a long hair that becomes an annoyance in summer, hairdressers are happy to cut them, but most take those long strands to turn them into extensions for rent.

What we want to do is simply spread the word and encourage girls with long hair to cut theirs. It is painless and simply, hair grows back easily.

The price of a wig with medium length is 300 usd in average. With the the buzz we can get couple of wigs done and as some of the fun(d) raisers suggested, why not sell wigs in exchange of money and donate it ?

Fun(d) raising gaming event
As suggested by as suggested by dashkoun, it would be extra exciting and fun to host gaming events . girls and guys will battle , race , play till finger muscles cramp ( ok, maybe a bit less ) we can rent a place in hamra with a lovely atmosphere, gamers can play, others can enjoy entertainement on big TVs (a movie screening anyone? ) . we can use this event also as a get together .

Yummi cookup as suggested by and
Who can get enough from enjoying yummi crunchy stuff ?  obviously no one ! – specially stuff cooked with love are hard to resist. That is why joelle and ghassan will be collaboration to create what they promised us to be the yummiest fund raising event yet. And maybe as darine pointed out, if you guys are up to it – we could have a day out to enjoy the food in some cool location and discover a lebanese area.

That’s a lot of stuff, where to get started ?
Many girls are already cutting their hair, so priority has to go for the wig initiative. We will then create text, banners for you guys to put on your blogs and to link to online donation page. after that we all get together for a wrap up meeting and gaming session where we collect the strands and evaluate our progress and hoepuflly plan our next move in detail with joelle and ghassan.

How to proceed ?
You can spread the word using any tool u want, u can tweet about it , share of facebook, put a blog post to engage ur reader, use the oh-very-powerful lebanese word of mouth to let people know about the collecting wig initiative , we will be calling that “mitlik-mitleh”.
We will have a default text you can use on ur blog or share on twitter/faceook. but it would be cooler if you post about this from your own point of view. Also if you have any ideas on how we can create more buzz, let us know by leaving a comment here or on the forums.
If you are a blogger and want to add a banner to support a cancer center or re-direct to their donation page, please get in touch with us to explain all details to you and to send you all the images/links and how-to.

Hope we will hear back from you , this initiative can only work if we all collaborate on it !

I’ll leave you with some of the pictures from the event.

 

It’s been two weeks since I got my head shaved. In no time, I got addicted to stroking my extremely short hair back and forth and that got me thinking about why men grow beards. (Since the shave, my hair started to grow back and my mind went on comparing it to men beard)

“In the course of history, men with facial hair have been ascribed various attributes such as wisdom and knowledge, sexual virility, masculinity, or high social status; and, conversely, filthiness, crudeness, or an eccentric disposition. In many cultures, beards are associated with nature and outdoors-men” (Wikipedia on beard)

Will Mari listed his ten reasons for me to grow beards:

1. Facial hair is cool.
2. It makes you manlier.
3. It makes you look like Chuck Norris.
4. You like the way it feels.
5. You like to stroke it while you think.
6. You like to scratch your manly arms and shoulders with it.
7. You like the way it smells.
8. You can store food in it.
9. Girls dig it.
10. Your are lazy.

Some guys would add reasons like:

• Hate to shave.
• It makes you to look older.
• It is something that women cannot do.
• It changes the appearance from a boy to a more handsome man.
• Expression of  freedom after leaving the military service.

While other stated more sex-related reasons.

But while I was stroking that extremely short hair on my head back and forth, I just realized how SOOTHING it was taking the stress away like magic. (Ah! I just remembered a few people who can’t stop stroking my hair when I’m around! )

Here is another good reason to shave your heads ladies!

A few minutes in Rita’s wig is a post written by Lorena.

It’s been a week and a day since I got my head shaved. Whether people took it positively or negatively, it did not leave anyone indifferent.

I was recently asked about my take in shaving and wearing a wig afterward. Well, let me clear things out. This is how I envision the situation:

• The battle against cancer: Sick people tend to give up on themselves. Having a wig to care for is really important in making an effort which will make them feel a bit better.
  Women’s connection to their hair is so emotional making the hair loss experience really traumatizing.
  For a 14 years old girl with cancer, whose perception about her transforming body is altered, going out head shaved is really not easy.
• Privacy: Some women do not feel comfortable letting everyone around them know that they have cancer. Others do not wish to  worry their family or to be tagged as “sick”. Many just don’t feel like spending their day explaining their situation. I think it’s legitimate.
• Suitability: Head shaving does not suit all head shapes for many reasons. Therefore having a wig is a good backup.
• On the job: I work in the HR Department of a company. This includes making interviews which means putting candidates at ease to get as much information as possible and make the right decision at the end. My purpose is not to see how they would react seeing me. Work and my intent have nothing to do together. I am neither a freelancer nor a company owner and I understand the needs of my job.
• Extreme styling opportunities: I can go out with or without hair depending on my mood. It takes 1 second!

From the minute I got my head shaved I had a lot of reactions. People would come give me their opinion, ask me questions, call me and send me messages. When you live in Lebanon, where beauty reaches ridiculously superficial standards, where it’s OK to undergo life-threatening operations to become as “good looking” as the local singers or the girls who appear on the covers of the magazines they read (No offense to anyone), all of this is expected.

People ask:

• What have you done to your hair? ~ Isn’t it obvious that I got my head shaved? I wondered.
• Did you get married? ~ How is that relevant? I Thought.
• Is this the new trend? ~ “Yes, it is!” I proudly answered.
• Are you sick? ~ Due to social pressure and discomfort, sick people avoid going out bare headed…which is not my case!
• How did your family react? ~ They were prepared and they just love it!
• What did you boyfriend say? ~ He said it’s hot and sexy!

People say:

• If I cut 2cm from my hair, my boyfriend would kill me. ~ Don’t let me get started on this one! Too bad for you both!
• I always wanted/dreamed to shave my head, but I don’t dare to do it/it doesn’t suit me. ~ It’s easier to have tattoos and piercings? It’s easier to have plastic surgery? But it’s not easy to  have JUST really short hair? Hair GROWS! It’s reversible! Wigs can be used for backup! Why don’t you try my standards for a change?
• You have a lot of courage/guts/”balls” to do something like that! ~ Maybe. All I know is that I really WANTED it.
• You don’t  look like a “normal” girl nor the way a girl “should” look. You don’t look “conventional”. ~ When I look into the mirror, I feel great, liberated from  all the “social handcuffs” and stereotypes.

People’s reactions:

• Heads turn when I walk in public.
• People stare and pinch the person next to them to look too.
• A guy in a mall fell from the stair.
• A relative was so shocked she could not talk.
• Salespeople in boutiques talk to me in English (I could not be Lebanese, could I?)

Perception needs to change. If cancer is to be defeated, it should not be feared nor tabooed. Cancer or not, trend or not, if you want to have your head shaved, just step up and do it!

The way I see it: Fear is the worst cancer.

A bald move by an even bolder woman.. is a post written by Lorena

“I am a girl, I live in Lebanon and I got my head shaved!” On April 10, 2010, Rita Kamel shaved her head for the following three reasons:

1- To break chemotherapy taboos.
2- To break the conventional beauty standards.
3- To raise awareness and funds for cancer.

I’d have to say, mission accomplished! I came across an article about her (on Ivy’s blog: Would you date a bald chick?) and was blown-away by her courage and conviction. She’s a true inspiration! Doesn’t she look absolutely gorgeous too?

I’m sure you’re all curious: How did she prepare for such a drastic step? What were the reactions of people around her? What did she discover through this? How could this help other women dealing with chemotherapy? Read Rita’s inspirational story on her blog: Click here.

Also, be sure to read Rita’s friend’s post on the experience with more insight on why Rita did it: Click here.

More about Rita coming soon!

Would you date a bald chick? is a post written by Ivy.

You probably already heard about the lovely Rita Kamel who shaved her head either from her blog or from the many Retweets she got on twitter! It’s the hot topic of the moment which led many of us to ask, why? Yes. Why would a pretty Lebanese girl simply decide to shave her head and go bald just like that. But you see this didn’t just happen out out of the blue, Rita planned it out to the very last detail, like one would do for a trip, getting her family on board, her boyfriend ( who happens to be bald too!) and even her co-workers. Rita even got a wig custom-made to wear to work.

Luckily for us Rita eloquently walks us through the many reasons she went through with it. Here is what she had to say when it was over:

“To tell you the truth, I didn’t care what people would say nor how they would look at me. I was out just being myself. All I can say is that I have never felt more comfortable and confident in my entire life. I  have never felt sexier or more attractive. Courage? Guts? “Balls”? I really don’t know. My heart did not race during the shave and I was smiling all the time.”

Her  friend also gives us an insight of the different feelings she experienced in “ A Bold Move.“  Here are some of the reasons why Rita went through with it explains Mireille:

1. Breaking the chemotherapy taboo
2. Breaking the conventional beauty standard
3. Raise awareness and funds for cancer

Rita’s move really got me thinking, she went somewhere many of us wouldn’t dare to go. Is it because we associate our hair with being feminine or is it because we live in a society that just wouldn’t understand let alone accept a bald by-choice woman. And how genius is it that Rita is doing her part in breaking these barriers.

Most importantly Rita’s boyfriend who  supported her all the way and is seen in the below pic kissing her head ( sigh.) So ask yourselves this: If you had a boyfriend, would he still love you without your long locks? Would he still find you sexy, hot, irresistible?  Better yet, would a guy especially a Lebanese one, date a bald girl? ( Thanks Shanty and Rita)  Bisoux

When I got my head shaved, a lot of people reacted. But the very first person whose reaction was followed by an ACTION was Toni Yammine. He took me to a nice place in Beitchabeb for a photoshoot! I had so much fun!

I thank him for his initiative as he made me love myself even more!
You can view the pictures on Toni’s Flickr page or on my .

I got my head shaved on April 10, 2010. The date has no particular meaning for me. I got my head shaved for several reasons. The most noble ones are those listed my Mireille in the post “A bold move“.

This how I got it done and how it went:

1. Preparing the people I care for the most:
   • This includes my parents, my brother & sister and my very close friends. My boyfriend never had an issue with whatever action I do as long as I was convinced and happy about it. (Salim, I love you!)
   • How I did it? By simply talking about it, discussing it and exposing the reasons behind it. It was important for me to understand that having my head shaved was viewed as extreme and aggressive. So I totally acknowledged all point of views with patience and built upon them. I also involved them in the process. I was frequently taking my mother with me to all the places she thought could be an alternative for shaving. I can tell you that everybody (but my boyfriend) was hoping that I would change my mind.
2. Preparing the workplace:
   • Saying “Tomorrow, I am going to shave” proved to be quite a shocker and thus, I had to comfort my colleagues that I wasn’t there to compromise the corporate image of the company (Oh, I am an employee too! ) by wearing a decent wig.
3. Choosing my new hair:
   • I went to Eve by Karkafi where I met really supportive staff. Although I was familiar with hair extensions, I had no idea about how to deal with a full wig made of natural hair. David, an employee there was patient enough to listen to my story. I explained why, told him I need a short good & natural looking wig that I would wear for work and ended bombarding him with 1000 questions. David listened till the end, explained how he viewed the situation from a professional point of view and ended by proposing several solutions. I picked the one I was most comfortable with and we took it from there. He tried several cuts on me as well as colors until I decided how I wanted my wig to be. The next day, the wig was ready to come home with me…on my head! (Thank you David.)
4. Comforting the family:
   • I gave my family members the time to get used to my look with the wig and had them accepted it.
   • I told them that I was still the same and not to worry about me; besides I was really convinced for the best reasons!
   • And just in case I didn’t like it, hair grows!
5. Calling the hairdresser:
   • Well, for a first time, I preferred to get in contact with the person I felt comfortable. This was (Website coming soon). I asked him if he was OK with it. (Actually, I knew he was. I used to asked him if it would look good on me and he always thought it would.)
6. Calling Mireille!
   • She was the first person who came to mind when I thought of whom I wanted next to me for support. (Thank you Mir for rescheduling your meetings just for me!)
   • Mireille also posted “A bold move” after I expressed my intention for a Fun(d) Raising event.
7. Hair Shaved Day:
   • Picked up Mireille and went to Salon Tony Ibrahim.
   • Got a few grooming things done.
   • Got a make up made by the trusted Caroline Sarkissian (Who was extremely supportive of my cause.)
   • Got my head shaved under the excited eye of Mireille who was taking pictures.
8. The shave:
   • The first second, felt like someone was tearing my hair.
   • I closed my eyes for 3 seconds and took a deep breath, I need to get accustomed to what was happening in the mirror. I admit, the moment was intense.
   • When my head got half shaved, I looked in the mirror and smiled. I felt sexy!
9. Reactions:
   • Here is something I thought would be quite an ordeal to manage: People’s reactions. Well, bizarrely, several women in salon approached me and congratulated me for having my head shaved! One asked me if this was the new trend, another told me that her sister did the same. One said she’d love to do it herself and another asked me if I got married. (Errr, how is this one related? No idea.)
   • I went out to meet my boyfriend and some friends to hang out. Everyone was amazed that I actually did it and felt proud.
   • An employee at a store spoke to me in English thinking I was a tourist!

To tell you the truth, I didn’t care what people would say nor how they would look at me. I was out just being myself. All I can say is that I have never felt more comfortable and confident in my entire life. I  have never felt sexier or more attractive. Courage? Guts? “Balls”? I really don’t know. My heart did not race during the shave and I was smiling all the time.

Today, I wish I had shaved my head long time ago. I can’t believe I passed next to the most amazing experience all this time. I am happy and proud.

I am a girl, I live in Lebanon and I got my head shaved!

Here are the other – not so noble – reasons I want to share as a duty to myself honesty:

1. Practicality:
   • No brushing
   • No spray
   • No gel
   • No accessories to keep the hair away from my face
   • No conditioner
   • No combs
   • No hair dryer
   • No coloring issues
   • No hair care treatments
   • No hair extensions
2. Behavior modification:
   • No shower problems (hot water, timing of the shower)
   • No skullcap needed while swimming
   • No trouble sleeping/going out with wet hair
   • No discomfort driving with the air blowing on my face (It used to blow my hair)
   • No sweaty neck in the summer
   • No weird look after taking off a hat
   • No more bad hair days
   • No more dull hair
   • No more wet hair look at the beach
   • No more oily looks
   • No hair-loss discomfort
3. Appearance:
   • No more “what should I do with my hair” question
   • No hair style issues
   • No more looking at the mirror for more than a minute
   • No more playing with my curls
   • No more hair sticking on my lips

Quick tips if you finally decide to step up and do it:

• Don’t overexpose yourself to the sun immediately after the shave. Do it gradually in order to avoid useless sunburns and have a good looking homogeneous tan.
• When temperature is really low, always cover your head to keep warm.
• Smile a lot!

Fun(d) Raising details coming soon!

A bold move is a post written by mir

Tomorrow I am going to share a strong, unique and first time ever emotional experience with my friend Rita Kamel:

I will go with Rita to her hairdresser. Going to hairdressers for me is a nerve challenging task but this is not what the story is about, the whole story is that she is going to shave her head, shave as in “3al zero” .

Rita is a 26 years old lady and totally healthy. We all know that a lady shaving her head is quite a taboo in our society, here is why my friend is bravely doing so (It is not just a darb habal ):

1 - Breaking the chemotherapy taboo : Each one of us had a relative, a friend or an acquaintance undergo chemotherapy and we all know about how painful and agonizing that process is : imagine not knowing if you will make it alive at the end of the day and thinking that those few painful yet precious moments could be your last among your family, friends and relatives… yet despite all this, our society inflicts another moral stupid unjustified stress on chemotherapy female patients, I am talking about “Oh my god, she is loosing all her hair ! ”
From a whole body crumbling under pain, all they worry and talk about is “loosing the freaking hair”, ano what the hell, hair grows back painlessly and what difference does it make? What pisses me off also, is that people console the girl about the hair after she recovers instead of congratulating her and wishing her health for example !

2 – Breaking the conventional beauty standards : Remember that shamBoo ad where the lady flicks her hair and the guy falls in love with her? Well Rita is making quite a loud and courage feminist statement : Beauty does not lie in ur hair ladies, but more with what resides under it ! That would be what is inside your skull ! Known as brain as well . It is not a statement, it is more like a soul freeing act .
What I know is that I will be looking forward for hanging out with Rita more than I usually do and I am sure Salim – the boyfriend- will enjoy taking out his equally head-shaved lady…this couple will only look damn hotter together.

3 – Raise awareness and funds for cancer : Being in Lebanon and having your head shaved will raise lots of questions, Rita will have the task of answering those “are you sick” questions and explaining her point of view about the 2 points mentioned above and trust me, that task is harder than skinning your head and banging it against concrete walls . We will also hold a Fun(d) Raising event, where we donate different accessories (earrings, bandannas, wigs…) for girls who are sadly suffering from cancer and have to undergo chemotherapy (we will make a full post about that on fund raising soon).

I am buzzing with thoughts and feelings: Will Rita chicken out and back away? Will she regret it? What feedback would she get? If she wants to back off, should I encourage her or just keep aside? Will I have the nerves to take pics and document the event? Would another girl step up and do it ? Would it make a change/difference ?

Well only tomorrow will tell, what I am sure of is that I am damn proud of you Rita and a tiny bit jealous !

For those of you who don’t know Rita , is her twitter name and here are some pictures of Rita and Salim.

I just found out that my blog got featured on WordPress under Human Resources tag. Really unexpected!
Thank you very much for this trust! (click picture to enlarge)