Hair today - gone tomorrow.

April Fool's Day can lead to acts of shear stupidity but this time it was all for a good cause.

Gary Izard, 22, of Kiln Shaw, Basildon, may be feeling a bit short at the moment but the kids at St Luke's Hospice are £500 better off because of his sacrifice.

Gary, whose hair was halfway down his back, had not seen the inside of a hairdressers in five and a half years.

He said: "It was April Fool's Day and I decided to do something for charity. So I cut my hair off and raised £500. I'm not feeling any weaker though it is a lot lighter and colder now.

"But I'm still glad I could raise the money for St Luke's."

Cuts Inn, in Kibcaps, Basildon put up £100 for the pleasure of performing the big snip and Gary's friends and family came up with the rest.

Gary said he picked St Luke's because it was a good charity and he knew every pound he gave would go directly to people in need.

Hairy moment - Dave Sumpton gets to grips with Gary Izard's locks

Picture: STEVE O'CONNELL

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.