A little boy, who’s never seen his dad without his beard, threw the most adorable crying fit ever upon seeing his clean-shaven dad for the first time.
“Are you sad?” Greg Hogan asked his youngest son Patrick. “Do you still love me?”
“No, I want your beard,” the boy replied, in tears.
Though Patrick was visibly upset, his dad was able to make him smile by promising him that the beard he loves so much will grow back soon.
“He didn’t recognise me at first until I started talking,” the dad-of-three told TODAY. “He had this look I’d never seen before. I wasn’t expecting that kind of reaction, and I had to reassure him that it was going to be OK.”
Watch the aww-worthy clip below.
The Georgia-based photographer grew out his beard about nine months ago for a worthy cause, which was a campaign called Beards for Bleeders to raise awareness for Hemophilia.
His youngest son, Patrick, was born with a rare form of the genetic disorder, which requires an infusion to compensate for missing clotting agents into a port in his chest.
Greg clarified that, unlike his decision to grow it out, there was no special reason why he shaved it off.
“It’s just so freaking hot in Georgia right now that I needed a break,” he said before laughing.
“I grew the beard to raise awareness,” he added. “I had no idea that shaving it off would actually raise more.”
Find out more about this worthy cause on the next page
The Beards for Bleeders campaign was established by the Hemophilia Federation of America, “a consumer advocate for safe, affordable, and obtainable blood products and health coverage, as well as a better quality of life for all persons with bleeding disorders”.
Due to his son having a rare form of the disease, they’ve become accustomed to the need to be extra careful.
“If there’s any type of issue where he bumps his head and bleeds, we have to take him to the ER for a CT scan, so in a house full of three boys, he has to be watched very carefully,” Greg said. “It’s become our new normal.”
Though Patrick was resistant at first, Greg’s older son Liam, 5, was immediately on board with his dad’s clean-shaven new look, pleased to find out who he inherited his adorable chin dimple from.
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