HAIRraising Event Offers Top Salon Haircuts for Charity

Hair-raising generally doesn’t carry a positive connotation, but drop the hyphen and add a few capital letters and it’s a whole different story. 

HAIRraising is fundraising event for Children’s Hospital in which participating salons provide customers with a stylish haircut for a $40 donation to Children’s.

On Sunday, April 29 more than 70 salons throughout Massachusetts, RI, CT and NH will participate in Boston Children's Hospital's annual HAIRraising event. At least two Lexington salons are included in that list, and a third, , is asking for a suggested donation of $2 for each salon visit during the month of April to benefit Children’s Hospital Boston.

In the past, the HAIRraising for Children’s Hospital Boston event has raised more than $200,000 and organizers hope to raise another $100,000 this year according to Janet Gilfeather, coordinator Cause Marketing & Sponsorship at Children’s Hospital Trust.

“This has become a great program,” Gilfeather said. “The first year was getting all the salons on board. It was great to see the big support from big names on Newbury Street and the interest spread out into the suburbs,” Gilfeather said. “They really went above and beyond. Last year, our top earner was Nicholas Michaels in Northboro raised over $11,000. The average for most salons is around $1,500 to $2,000.”

The HAIRraising program was founded by celebrity hairstylist John Frieda and Gail Federici two years ago after Federici’s daughter required extensive open-heart surgery and received treatment at Children’s Hospital Boston. John Frieda first started the HAIRraising fundraiser in 2010 to benefit the Great Orman Street Hospital in London and has since brought the charity here to the United States.

Tony Ciampa of  said he will have 30 stylists participating from all of their locations, including the salon and spa on Bedford Street.

“Last year we participated and raised a few thousand dollars. This year we hope to double it,” Ciampa said. “We will be operating on a first come, first serve basis.”

Haley Goff, marketing director at said all 25 of their studios in the Boston area will participate, including the Meriam Street salon.

“We have somewhere between 100 to 200 stylists volunteering,” Goff said. “This is a very compassionate field where you develop close relationships with the clients. We were given a list of how many patients live in each town with one of our salons in it. The numbers were amazing.”

Additionally in Lexington, the Naz Kupelian salon is running a month-long HAIRraising fundraising event to benefit Children’s Hospital Boston. Customers will be asked to donate $2 or more at the end of their visit, and Kupelian, the celebrity stylist/RUSK creative design team member, has pledged to match every dollar raised.

“This is a great opportunity for the salon community to come together in support of a facility that is very close to my heart,” said Kupelian, whose daughter was treated at Children's Hospital when she was a baby for a heart condition. “It is an honor to be part of a charity program that is a collaboration of some of the most talented artists in the beauty industry.”

All proceeds go to The Children’s Fund. To learn more, visit www.hairraisng4chb.com.