Oliver Atkinson-Perillo was a fresh-faced 10-year-old when he shaved his head in the 2007 World's Greatest Shave in honour of his dad Mark Perillo, who had died from leukaemia.
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He repeated the feat on Wednesday, now aged 17, but still fresh-faced and committed to raising funds for cancer research and awareness through the Leukaemia Foundation.
''I kind of want to support other families,'' he said.
His shave in 2007 was done as a year 6 student at St Bede's Primary School. On Wednesday he was joined by school leaders and other year 12 classmates from Canberra Grammar School.
His friend James Lightbody did the honours and Oliver wasn't too worried about going bald as winter approached.
''No, it's just a haircut,'' he said.
His shaved head at the bookends of two stages of his education provided a little levity on a serious issue.
Oliver was four days old when his father was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia and 11 months old when his dad passed away on March 17, 1997.
His mother, Lucy Atkinson, who works at Grammar as the head of design, art and technology, said her husband was diagnosed by chance because Oliver had been born with an unusual blood disorder and his parents needed to be tested.
''It was an incidental diagnosis. It was, 'This patient's father has leukaemia','' she said.
Mr Perillo, a graphic designer, died aged just 36. Ms Atkinson said he was very much part of the family's life, a natural part of their conversation. But it was still emotional remembering him.
The family moved to Melbourne at the time so Mr Perillo could be treated but ''we had enormous support from the Canberra community''. ''There will be people now who will remember that time in their lives, when Oliver was this little baby,'' she said, through tears.
Oliver has three brothers - Sam, 27, Patrick, 25, and Nick 20. Sam was on hand to watch the shave at the school and said his memories of his dad were simple.
''He was just dad,'' Sam said. ''I remember mucking around, kicking the footy. I remember shaving off his hair when we moved down to Melbourne, once the chemo started.''
Oliver raised $1000 for the World's Greatest Shave this time around and his house at Grammar, Burgmann, also raised $1000.
