For anyone who sees UMass forward Austin Plevy for the first time in a while, the double-take is unavoidable.
His hair … His trademark flowing-out-of-the-back-of-his-helmet hockey hair is gone.
Snipped.
Shorn.
Short.
Plevy got the message that new coach Greg Carvel wasn’t a big fan of long locks and decided to get off to a good start with his new boss.
Plevy’s hair wasn’t sacrificed in vain. He donated his hair to Pantene Beautiful Lengths, a Canadian Charity that makes wigs for cancer patients.
“I ended up donating it to cancer patients,” Plevy said. “I know coach wasn’t too big a fan of long hair so it all came together.”
Helping cancer patients had added significance as the disease claimed his grandmother a month ago.
He got a tattoo (above) in her honor. He posted his thoughts on her passing on Instagram:
“Toughest week of any of our lives loosing Nana but we all know she’s watching over, proud of every one of us. Incredibly blessed to have such a strong family to go through this with and if any of my children or grandchildren look up to me half as much as all of us look up to you I’ll be a lucky man. Forever in our hearts Nana”