The haematology scientist at the Princess Alexandra Hospital shaved off his knee-length dreads on Friday after raising about $9000 in less than a month for the Leukaemia Foundation's World's Greatest Shave.

Mr Zerafa shaved at the hospital, where he has worked for 10 years, and said he was blown away by the support of colleagues and friends who donated to the cause.

"Everyone's been so supportive, all my colleagues, my friends, just people in the street," he said.

"I had my badge on that said I was going to cut, some guy goes 'are you really going to cut your hair?' ... he just got out his wallet and donated, so it's a been an amazing response."

Mr Zerafa said no one was going to recognise him without his dreads - even his wife Cara had never seen him without them. For her part, she said it was "about time" they went.

The scientist works with the haematologists who help treat leukaemia patients at the PAH, which is why he decided to shave.

"You come in to work and you see these patients who are affected by leukaemia," he said.

"[I just thought] it would just be great to show them some support."

Maria Lamari lost her dad to leukaemia last week. She said she and her sisters decided to raise money and colour their hair to support the foundation, but also the hospital that treated their father for 24 years.

"My dad passed away on Tuesday last week, and he died from leukaemia, and he'd been treated here at this hospital, so we only started raising money this week, for this particular fundraising.

"It just seemed fitting when dad passed away and I just saw it advertised and thought, yeah, I'm going to colour my hair," she said.

The four sisters raised nearly $900, and Ms Lamari said they would probably do it every year now.

"If it wasn't for the research, [our dad] probably wouldn't have gotten as far as he did."

The hospital's World's Greatest Shave event raised more than $11,000. So far, more than $2 million has been raised in Queensland, with $9.3 million raised nationally.

The Leukaemia Foundation's Scott Mullins said it was "inspiring" to see so many people dontate to help beat blood cancer.

"Paul and thousands of others like him are making a huge sacrifice this weekend to raise the money that will fund life-saving research and support for the 60,000 Australians living with a blood cancer.

"The Leukaemia Foundation's work simply wouldn't be possible without that support."

As for Mr Zerafa's dreads, the scientist said he would keep them but he would not be growing them back.

"I'll keep them as a souvenir of my youth," he said.

"No, I'm not going to grow them back. I'll grow [my hair] out a little bit but I don't think they'll ever be as good as that, so I won't be growing them back again I don't think."