Tony is doing it for his wife. Augar is doing it for his friend’s sister. Every year, Macmillan raises hundreds of thousands of pounds through Brave the Shave. The national cancer charity was keen to showcase the wide variety of people – of different ages, ethnicities and gender identities – that decide to do a sponsored shave. Amit and Naroop, renowned for their large-scale campaigns work with major brands, were delighted to lend their skills to an important cause.

Each individual had a unique story and this comes across in the images. Tony hadn’t cut his hair at all since he lost his wife Tina to the disease. Jamie, who is non-binary, asked their partner Wilder to shave their hair for them, giving the moment a sense of intimacy, while Augar was naturally apprehensive of shaving off the dreadlocks he’d been growing for six years.

To document in stills and video their reactions the instant the clippers went across their heads, the shoot had to be spot on. There were no second chances so a lot of planning went on before. Amit and Naroop came up with the idea of using the glass from an autocue machine as a two way mirror so that Tony, Augar and Jaime could see themselves without reflections interfering with the image. When the moment came, everyone on set shared in the emotion.