Jimmy Niggles ‘My beard is worth $1m’

Jimmy Niggles has become an ambassador in the fight against skin cancer and all by growing his beard for the last five years.

After the British rising star’s friend Wes died from melanoma five years ago at the age of 26, he’s enlisted other bearded men to help spread the word persuading regular skin checks.

His mission to raise awareness for people to take life-saving skin cancer checks has even led him to rub shoulders with some Hollywood talent such as Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Bassingthwaighte at Australian film premieres.

Now Jimmy’s beard is worth $1m, as he’s been offered that amount to shave it off, although that won’t be any time soon as he’s hoping to raise even more money!

Why did you decide on a beard?
Melanoma is such a tragic disease. The Melanoma Institute is doing a great job of research, the Cancer Council and Cancer Institute is doing a great job - but no one was encouraging skin checks. My friends and I spied a couple of old farmers of the pub we were at in the corner of the bar. They had amazing beards. And we thought, how come no one our age is rocking the beard? Mind you, this was five or so years ago. And so, we thought let’s grow our beards, everyone will ask us why, and we’ll tell them about our mate Wes and ask them when they last had a skin check.

Can you tell us a bit more about Beard Season?
Beard Season is a non-profit charity inviting gentlemen to grow their beards, get a skin check and become an ambassador in the fight against melanoma. You can embark on your own Beard Season anytime you like, however all we ask is that you make sure you book a skin heck at least every winter, which is when we focus our activity. Ladies have become part of Beard Season too. In fact, most of our social media followers are women and out of all the messages we receive from people who have found a melanoma because of what we are doing, a majority of them are female.

How long do you think you’ll keep growing it for?
I got to a point last year when I thought I couldn’t just shave this thing off. It’s come so far, met so many people. So, I bought an ad in the paper and put my beard up for sale - at the handsome sum of one million dollars. I announced it at a conference called Emergence Creative, then the week after I was being interviewed by Kochie on Sunrise in front of two million people.

You’ve been working with QT…
QT have purchased a collection of the #Project60 playing cards, which are now available in their barbershops in QT Sydney and QT Canberra. They have been hugely supportive of the work we are doing and it is an honour to have them as one of our exclusive retailers.

What advice do you have for men who struggle to grow a beard, are there any tips?
- Don’t shave.
- Swim in the ocean.
- Push through the itchy stage.
- Wear it like you mean it.
- Never keep it far from good conversation - you could save someone’s life.