A local high school student has decided to make the biggest sacrifice a girl can make at her graduation, by cutting off all her hair.

David Thompson Secondary School (DTSS) Grade 12 student Brittany Taylor will be snipping it all for the Canadian Cancer Society in June next year.

“The graduation is high profile and it’s already a special thing to do, but it will also make the graduation something people will never forget,” she said.

“People will remember it for years down the track.”

DTSS principal Darren Danyluk agrees.

“Doing it at the graduation will cause quite a spectacle,” he said.

“It is a glamorous time of the year where beauty is important, and it is really making a statement and showing how little beauty matters when it comes to saving lives.”

In the lead-up to the event Taylor is aiming to raise $10,000 for the organization through various school and out-of-school based monthly activities such as bake sales, crazy hair days, penny drives and donations.

“Any money I can make will be great,” she said.

“I’d like to make that amount though.”

Various other students have also put their names down to take part in the event, but right now Taylor said total numbers aren’t known.

“A lot of other students have also signed up to have their hair cut off, and anyone else who wants to join in is welcome.”

Taylor said she was inspired to help people struggling with cancer by the Relay for Life program earlier this year.

“Shelley Chaney (Drug and alcohol prevention worker at DTSS) organized to cut off her own hair and I wanted to do it my own way with the Canadian Cancer Society,” she said.

Taylor confronted teachers and peers with her idea shortly after the Terry Fox Run in September, and was met with both support and admiration.

“Brittany is a very involved student and she’s socially conscious of people around her and her peers,” Danyluk said. “She has certainly upped the level by doing something like this at an event that is very glamorous and based around how you look, and I admire her.”

As far as telling her parents though, Taylor said it wasn’t as bad as she thought.

“My parents were really surprised and shocked, but they’re supportive of my decision,” she said.

“My mum gave me the best reaction. She was really shocked, where as everyone else was like, yeah okay.”

But she plans to make the most out of the event and not let anything go to waste, including her long blonde locks. Owner of Anglz Hair Studio, Maria Small, will be on hand at the graduation to collect the hair which will then be donated to Locks of Love.

“She came to me and asked if I would go there and cut it off for her and I said I would be willing to do that for her,” Small said.

Locks of Love is a non-for-profit organization that supplies human hair pieces to people suffering from long-term medical hair loss of any diagnosis.

“It’s wonderful because you see so many cancer patients who are losing their hair and it makes them feel good to have something like this,” she said.

“It’s a good thing and if anyone wants to do it I would encourage it.”

Instead of feeling reluctant to lose her hair, as most girls would, Taylor said she was impatient to see it through.

“I’m looking forward to it. I kind of want it off now but I hope I don’t look like a guy,” she said.