The 12-year-old was finally allowed to do it on Friday when she and her mother chopped their locks to raise money for Southland Hospice.
The motivation was family.
"We had a bunch of people we knew who had cancer. My grandad had cancer and my Aunty Di, who I was really close to," Amelia-Jayne said.
Her grandfather had spent time in Southland Hospice so she knew just how much the organisation helped people.
So Amelia-Jayne waited and waited, until she reached an age when she was allowed to do it.
"Mum said I could do it when I was 13 — so I took that as 12."
And so on Friday, the day she turned 12, the hair came off.
Amelia-Jayne, whose hair had reached her bottom before it was cut, was donating it to have a wig made "so someone who can’t grow their hair back can have mine".
Mrs Curry said she had told Amelia-Jayne if she raised $1000 she would also have her hair shaved off.
That was just a smoke screen: when her daughter announced she was doing it, Sharlene had already arranged to have hers cut, too.
"If she’d only raised $1 I would have done it."
Asked how she felt about her daughter, Mrs Curry replied, "there’s actually no words for how proud I am".
"For a 12-year-old, she just inspires me."
By the beginning of the weekend the total raised had reached $2955. With her Givealittle page still open for one more week, she was hoping it would increase.
And what would her grandad and Aunty Di have thought of it all?
"I know they’d be proud," Amelia-Jayne said.
