Corinne Sullivan called it her "bridal shave."
Instead of a traditional bridal shower, this Chicago woman hosted a party where she shaved her head to honor her mom, who died of liver cancer just two years ago.
Dubbing it her “bridal shave,” Corinne Sullivan, 41, of Chicago buzzed off her golden locks during a pub event hosted by the St. Baldrick’s Foundation earlier this month.
Sullivan even let her fiancé, Tim Lyndon, 41, have the first go-around with the clippers, just months before their wedding date.
"Shaving your head, it’s more than just raising money," Sullivan told InsideEdition.com. For me, it’s like showing solidarity, it’s very dramatic. It’s a very bold and eye-catching way to bring in the conversation all the time. Everywhere I go, people can’t deny it."
She explained she met her now-fiancé about the same time her mom, Colleen Charneski, was diagnosed with stage 4 liver cancer.
Charneski died just months later, in January 2016.
"She didn’t want to try to fight it and make the time she had left even shorter," Sullivan said.
Sullivan said she has been looking for a way to honor her mom ever since, but nothing seemed quite right until a friend walked into the bar she worked at with a shaved head last year.
After learning that he did it to benefit St. Baldrick’s, Sullivan agreed to do it as well.
“My mom had been a pediatric oncology nurse so that had been something that was really important to her,” Sullivan said. “People that do go through cancer, whether they’re children or adults, one of the things you struggle with is losing your hair. You don’t realize, as women, how much we identify our hair with our looks and how important our looks are to our identity."
She and Lyndon got engaged shortly after, but there was no talking her out of doing the shave, even if she would be bald on her wedding day.
“Once I set my mind on something, I’m going to do it,” she said. “He’s also the most amazing, most supportive person that I’ve ever met. Any man that can be there for me from the beginning of [my mom’s cancer] — how could he not be supportive? “
Sullivan decided to organize her shave to coincide with her bridal shower as a way to get her mom involved with some of the festivities.
“That’s when you miss your parents — they can be gone two years or 10 years, and that’s when you really miss them,” she explained. "Really, who needs more stuff? I don’t need another toaster."
In lieu of gifts, Sullivan had all her friends donate to St. Baldrick’s and after raising more than $1,350 online, she collected even more at the event itself.
“I think [my mom] would have loved it,” she said.
Sullivan and Lyndon will marry on May 12, and declared it would be a giftless wedding. However, they are continuing to encourage their friends and family to support St. Baldrick’s.
To donate to their campaign, visit their St. Baldrick's website.
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