Dad dyes hair blue to support son and ends up raising $12,500 for immigrant charity
A dad just trying to support his son ended up supporting an organization for refugees and immigrants. Matthew Green, a cryptography professor at Johns Hopkins, tweeted on Monday that his son wanted to dye his hair blue – but only if dad did it too.
"Now I'm questioning this whole 'parenting' decision," Green tweeted. He received several replies, urging him to go blue. In fact, some people wanted this dad die his hair so badly, the said they'd pay money to see it.
My kid wanted to die his hair blue but would only do it if I also did and now I’m questioning this whole “parenting” decision.
— Matthew Green (@matthew_d_green) June 25, 2019
"I will donate $300 to RAICES to see this happen," tweeted Filippo Valsorda, a fellow cryptographer.
"I'm in for $300. Will accept temp hair color spray, but must leave for 24h," Runa Sandvik, senior director of information security at The New York Times, tweeted.
After a few more donations were pledged over Twitter, Green tweeted "this got super weird." But as weird as it got, Matthew still booked an appointment to get his hair bleached and then dyed blue.
"I'm only doing this because a bunch of people pledged a lot of money to a good cause," Green tweeted. The chosen charity, RAICES (Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services) is a nonprofit that provides free and low-cost legal services to immigrant children, families and refugees.
Green proceeded to live-tweet his hair dying experience, from buying two boxes of blue die to sitting in the salon chair. When his hair was bleached blonde and the blue dye was processing, Green tweeted that he hoped others were still making donations.
Oh my god how do people do this. pic.twitter.com/bzToo79dKv
— Matthew Green (@matthew_d_green) June 25, 2019
So @RAICESTEXAS should be $12,500 better off. A great cause even without the hair. Thanks @FiloSottile and many, many others. I may need to sign off Twitter soon just to keep people from making me dye the beard too :) pic.twitter.com/HnkoSSYHLE
— Matthew Green (@matthew_d_green) June 25, 2019
By the end, Green got what he hoped for – $12,500 for RAICES and electric blue hair, to match his son's.
"Wow. Love this story. Thank you @matthew_d_green, your kid, and to everyone who supported this epic new look," RAICES replied to Green's twitter thread.
Green shared a photo of the finished product – but said he would refuse, for now, Twitter users' requests for him to dye is beard also. He didn't share any photos of his son, so it is unclear if he also went along with the hair transformation, or if dad took one for the team – and RAICES.