A city barber has broken the world record for the number of heads shaved in one hour as part of the Irish Cancer Society/ Today FM’s “Shave or Dye” campaign.
John McGuire, the co-owner of the Fat Tony barber chain in Galway, shaved 60 heads in 60 minutes for the event which raised more than €350,000 for the cancer charity.
Having travelled to Dublin the previous day John won a tense live on-air shave-off competition against three other barbers. He completed his headshave in 44 seconds and was chosen to attempt the world record.
This was staged at the Style Room salon, Dublin and was broadcast live on the Ray D’Arcy Show. Despite the obvious pressure John’s steady and speedy hand saw him off to a flying start and with just 20 minutes gone it was apparent that he was not only on course to break the world record of 44 heads but to smash it completely. Having reached 60 heads John actually ran out of willing participants but was delighted with his efforts.
“It was a big challenge but I was pretty confident going into it. I just got my head down and half way through I knew the record was in sight.”
A number of celebrities had their hair shaved or dyed on the day including Today FM presenters Tony Fenton, Matt Cooper and Ray Foley.
“It really was a great day,” says John. “The atmosphere in the salon was brilliant and we raised an amazing amount of money for cancer research and support in Ireland. The event culminated in John shaving Ray D’Arcy’s head. The details of the day have been sent for verification and I now hope to enter into the Guinness Book of Records.”
