Chip Gaines Earned Massive Total for St. Jude by Going Bald

Fixer Upper star Chip Gaines raised over $500,000 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital just by going bald. Gaines grew his hair out over the summer, then cut it all off on Friday to help raise awareness for St. Jude’s fundraising campaign. Gaines donated his hair to Children With Hair Loss, an organization that provides children with wigs.

“WOW… over $425k raised for [St. Jude]!! We are completely blown away by how y’all came together to chip in for this amazing organization,” Gaines wrote on Instagram Saturday, alongside a video showing off his hair transformation. Gaines and his wife, Joanna Gaines, also made a donation to bring up the total to an even $500,000. They also donated $50,000 to Children With Hair Loss. “Thank you all for being a part of this with us—what a powerful week that will no doubt have a lasting impact on countless lives,” Gaines wrote.

“Wow looking good! We are so grateful for the incredible generosity of everyone who contributed to help St. Jude kids,” the St. Jude staff wrote on Gaines’ post. Many other praised him for his philanthropy. “The wonderful thing about the Gaines is not only do they talk the talk they walk the walk. You don’t find many people like that anymore,” one fan wrote. “Awesome! And the new look actually looks pretty good,” another commented.

Gaines showed off his shoulder-length hair during an appearance on the Today Show with Joanna in July. They were supposed to talk about the launch of the Magnolia Network, but the hair topic dominated the discussion. “Nobody can agree on anything,” he joked about his hair. “You’re either in this camp or you’re in this camp. Well, Twitter is very similar in that regard with my hair. It’s either you love this or you (hate it).”

Joanna told Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb that the long hair had “grown on me,” but she knew it would not last long. “I think I’m going to miss it, for sure,” she said. Although he was planning to cut it for charity, Gaines said the decision to grow his hair long came during the coronavirus pandemic. He just decided to shake things up and let it grow.

“I like to continue to bring in bucket lister-type situations into my life and I was like, hey, when I die I’m going to say, ‘You remember that season that I had that long hair?’” Gaines said. “And when I’m bald as a bat here in a couple of months after we shave it — literally, razor-blade bald — then I’ll say I’ve never been bald before either.” Gaines previously cut his hair for a St. Jude benefit in 2017.

Gaines, 46, and Joanna, 43, have five children, Drake, 16; Ella Rose, 14; Duke, 13; Emmie Kay, 11; and Crew, 3. Although the launch of their Magnolia Network was delayed until January 2022, some of their programming is already available on Discovery+. Several new Magnolia shows were released in August, including For the Love of Kitchens, Ranch to Table, Point of View: A Designer Profile, and Self Employed.