Southport Magazine

Steve Braune of Wilmington will shave his head on March 15th to raise money for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation. After shaving his head every day for 10 years, Steve grew it out in honor of one family. Courtesy photo

St. Baldrick’s Shaving Party
Saturday, March 15th • 6 p.m. to 2 a.m.
Shaving at 8 p.m.
Fox and Hound Sports Tavern, 920 Town Center Dr.
Mayfaire Shopping Center, Wilmington
(910) 509-0805
www.foxandhound.com or www.facebook.com/FoxAndHoundWilmington

When I first met Steve Braune, a manager at Fox and Hound Sports Tavern in Wilmington who transferred to the area from Winston-Salem, I thought his hair perfectly suited the fact that he likes to surf. I didn’t know much else about him, but his tight curls fell just below his shoulders and were his most prominent physical feature. Yet as I’ve learned more about Steve, I’ve discovered his long locks serve a much greater purpose.

Steve, before joining the team at Winston-Salem’s Fox and Hound, was a schoolteacher for 12 years in Dobbs, North Carolina. He shaved his head every day for 10 years. “I’m talking like shaving cream and razor—it was right down to the scalp,” he insists.

He left his teaching position in 2011, when his family’s caretaker for their 3-year-old daughter graduated and took a job as a nurse. Steve decided to become a stay-at-home dad until his daughter started school. “I worked in restaurants paying my way through college. Even when I was teaching, I was still working in a restaurant: running a restaurant by night and teaching by day because teachers don’t make much money. I was a high-school wrestling coach also, so juggling multiple jobs,” Steve shares. “That’s one other reason why I always shaved my head: It was just easier being bald.”

Before Steve left the school system, one of his friends, a coworker, was diagnosed with brain cancer. Shana Lewis, who had long hair past the small of her back and a daughter in the second grade, had to face a disease and struggle that accounts for one of every four deaths in the United States.

“They found a brain tumor in her,” Steve remembers. “She had long hair, but she and her husband, David, shaved it before she went into treatment and donated it. During treatment she was, obviously, completely bald for a period.”

Amber Eberhard, a waitress at Fox and Hound, measure’s Steve’s hair, which has been growing for three years. Photo by Bethany Turner

Seeing Shana at school one day, Steve made a connection. Where Shana had donated her locks and gone bald, Steve could go from being bald to having hair long enough to donate himself. That was enough for him to commit. “My last day of school was May 4th, 2011; that was the last day I shaved, so the 5th is when I started growing it out,” he tells.

Though Shana survived her brain cancer and is now in remission, the Lewis family suffered a tragedy no one saw coming. “It’s ironic,” Steve begins, conceding there are few other ways to describe the shock of the family’s affliction. “David was caring for Shana and focusing on her problems—their problems—and their little one, Brooke. Raising a little one, the monetary strain of cancer treatment, and then his job, too. So any aches and pains he felt were ignored. Literally while he was caring for her, it was, My aches and pains aren’t as bad as what she’s going through. I’ve got a headache this morning—did I not have my coffee? I’ll just pop two aspirin. He was one of those—just like I said, he thought, However bad I feel, it’s not as bad as what she’s going through. So that’s how he wrote it all off or made the excuses for his pains. Then he went to the hospital and it was—one day he was here and the next he was gone.”

David passed away from severe cancer which infected much of his body. “David had bone cancer. I don’t know if that’s how it metastasized or spread, but it ended up being all in him,” Steve says. “I don’t recall it ever being one particular organ. They said it was his brain, also, and his bones. Those were the two biggest.”

Pulled straight, Steve’s hair measures 20 inches long. Amber is shocked but Steve is proud! Photo by Bethany Turner

Although Shana now raises Brooke without her husband, the family is doing fine, Steve shares. And now that his hair has grown to 20 inches in the past three years, he is ready to shave it to raise funds for cancer research.

“When I was a schoolteacher, I was also the athletic director. Big into sports, which is one of the reasons I chose Fox and Hound to come back to work with my restaurant experience,” Steve says. “I was in charge of the fundraising; I had to support an athletic budget, so whatever the school or the state didn’t give me, I had to raise. We were all the time doing fundraisers. So I was definitely going to tie shaving my hair into a fundraiser, whether it be St. Baldrick’s or Locks of Love or one of the bunch of organizations that do this. I knew I’d do that one way or another, whether I was still in the school system or if I were still a stay-at-home dad, maybe do it through church, or do it with whatever job I decided—it just happened to be with Fox.”

On Saturday, March 15th at 8 p.m., Steve will shave off all 20 inches of his hair at Fox and Hound, which is located in the Mayfaire Town Center shopping district. Fox and Hound is hoping to beat a fundraising goal of $1,000, which will go to the St. Baldrick’s Foundation.

“St. Baldrick’s is about conquering childhood cancer,” Steve expresses. “I think of Brooke in this. And I know this is going toward children who physically have cancer and the research to help them, but Brooke—her mom had it, and then her dad died of it. She had no control over it. Cancer affects not just the people who have it, but the people who don’t have it—in this case, a child. St. Baldrick’s, that’s their campaign. So that’s why we picked this organization.”

By donations made inside the restaurant, Fox and Hound has raised $200. An additional $270 has been raised online. Photo by Bethany Turner

To date, the restaurant has raised $270 online (Steve is being joined by another “shavee,” David Bleaking. Others are encouraged to join.) and $200 in-store. Folks are able to donate at the restaurant or by visiting the team’s St. Baldrick’s fundraising site. The restaurant plans to make a celebration out of Steve’s shaving, complete with a DJ and drink specials. For more information, call (910) 509-0805 or visit Fox and Hound’s Facebook page or Facebook event page for the St. Baldrick’s party.

Though Steve hoped he could host Shana and Brooke in Wilmington for the shaving party, the girls will be on a much-deserved vacation. He will be sending the Lewises a video of the event, so attendance is certainly encouraged to show the family support.

As for Steve, he and his wife are glad to see him go bald again. “It’s been almost three years. I’m just ready for it to be gone; I enjoy being bald,” he muses. “It’s easier to deal with. Cream it up and shave it; it takes five minutes every morning. Now—product! My bills will go down. I’ve grown a beard for charity before, but after a while you want to get rid of it if you’re not used to it. Hair is the same thing. It’s just time. I’m excited—I’ve got to get rid of it—and it’s for a good cause.”