Barber Georges Atieh shaves his head to make Sandra Smith, who’s battling breast cancer, feel comfortable in his chair. (Submitted photo)

Barber in Foxborough shaves own head to help cancer patient feel more at ease

A barber went above and beyond to make a customer feel comfortable while in his chair.
About three years ago, Georges Atieh opened the “GA Barbershop” in Foxborough near Patriots Place.

“I’ve been a barber for about eight years now,” said Atieh. “When you like what you do, you do good.”
Atieh said typically he cuts the hair of men but last week, a woman walked in in need of his services.
Sandra Smith’s husband has been getting his hair cut by Atieh for years.

They know the power a small gesture can make

This time though, it wasn’t him who needed his services, it was Sandra.

“I wasn’t going to sit there and just have my hair fall out in chunks,” she said.
Smith’s husband reached out to Atieh.

“I was going to have my husband shave my head at home, but he said, ‘Go to my barber.’ I go to George,” she said.
“He came in, told me what’s going on with her,” said Atieh. “I wanted to support her, she’s not alone.”

Before she went to get her head shaved, Atieh said he set up his phone on his hair stand and began recording without her knowing. He said he did it, so at the end of her haircut, if she wanted, she could keep the video as a memory.

“We were recording — she doesn’t know about it. We thought after we show her, we said, ‘We do this for you as a memory if you want to keep it, you can keep it if you don’t that’s OK. If you want to share it, we can. It’s whatever you want to do’,” said Atieh.

Halfway through the haircut, Sandra got emotional. It was at that point Atieh took his clippers and decided to shave his head, too.

“When I started cutting her hair, I saw her start to become emotional, so I decide to support her,” he said. “I wasn’t planning it, it’s just how I felt when she told me her story and what she’s going through it just made me do that. I said, ‘I want to support you and now we look the same.”

Moments later, tears fell from Sandra’s eyes.

“I definitely didn’t expect that at all,” she said. “I said myself I wasn’t going to cry when I was shaving my head, and he made me cry, but those were happy tears — completely happy, and he touched my heart completely.”

“It’s just a horrible story, after a horrible story, with everything that’s going on lately and there definitely are good people out there,” said Sandra. “It was just such a kind gesture, just such a good person, and put me at ease.”

“She’s a very strong woman. I’m so proud of her, to be honest, she’s very strong,” said Atieh. “We should all stand together against cancer and hopefully one day they’ll find a cure for that.”

Sandra said she hopes her story will promote awareness for other women to get checked for breast cancer. She was raising money for the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides event, which took place on Sept. 26, 2021, in Boston.

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