Four ‘Sassy Sisters’ and One Boyfriend to Get Buzz Cuts Sunday to Benefit Children with Cancer

This coming Sunday afternoon, when Nancy Maiullari arrives at a client’s to cater a party, she’ll look much different that she did Sunday morning.

Maiullari, who owns Razzy’s Deli & Desserts on Merrimac Street, has shoulder-length hair that used to be eight inches longer.

On Sunday morning, she and three of her sisters and her significant other are going to get their heads shaved to benefit children with cancer.

The Maiullari family has no pediatric cancer, according to Lucy Maiullari, Nancy’s sister, and the instigator of them having their heads shaved. The family does have a “huge connection to cancer,” Lucy told Patch Friday, in their father, sister, brother-in-law, uncles, aunts and cousins.

“It’s hard enough to watch an adult with cancer,” Lucy said. ”I can’t imagine watching – or being – a child with cancer.”

Lucy heard the announcement on WBZ for the Kid’s Cancer Buzz-Off.  She has short hair, even beyond her usual haircut schedule. “I want my hair short,” she told Patch. “Now there’s a good reason,” the Chelmsford resident quipped, to go for a buzz cut.

Three of her sisters – Carol Cyran of Manchester, N.H., Ruth Aylward of N. Billerica and Nancy, who lives in Winchester  – also jumped on board, she told Woburn Patch.

Nancy is the only one of her siblings – all sisters, she said, with longer hair.

“You don’t want to do that,” Nancy said customers told her. Nancy proposed that they donate to the effort.  She’s collected more than $500.

Volunteers collect donations for promising to shave their heads. The money benefits Children’s Hospital Boston, helping children and their families deal with their cancer. This is the third buzz-off; donations will be accepted after the event.

 One sister is not going to get her head shaved.

“I tease her,” Nancy said.

Originally, Nancy’s boyfriend, David Otte, “went on a rant,” Nancy said, about why she shouldn’t get a buzz cut. He’s going with the Sassy Sisters -- and getting one, too.

This isn’t Nancy's first time at putting herself out for a cause.

She jumped out of a plane three years ago after raising money for cancer research. If you raised at least $1,500, you got to skydive for free, she explained.  She raised $2,000. Skydiving was on her “must do” list.  So she jumped.

Nancy and Lucy have walked the Relay for Life for the past three years.

The buzz cut event is perfectly timed, Lucy said, to coincide with the start of summer. 

“I think,” she said, “it’s going to feel fantastic.”

Nancy has already told the client for whom she’ll be catering Sunday that she’s going to be bald when she arrives. According to Nancy, the client said, “I’m sure you’re going to be beautiful.”

Six days later, Nancy will meet many members of her boyfriend’s family for the first time, at his father’s 80th birthday party.

“I don’t care about how I look,” she said.

The family has suffered a series of difficulties, including, Nancy told Patch, the death of her daughter a year ago.

 “Is shaving your hair a big deal?” she asked.

“People are acting like we’re cutting off an arm,” said Lucy. It’s only hair.”

 “My hair,” Nancy said, “grows fast.”