Money was raised for the Upper Eden Food Bank with a “pay what you can day” at a newly opened Shap hairdressing salon.
Emma Topping, of Fell View Hair and Beauty, said: “At our last staff meeting in December we decided we wanted to do something for our local community to help give something back.
“Money is tight at the best of times, but especially in January, and added to that is the cost of living crisis and the extra cost of fuel bills.”
For the pay what you can day, there were no appointments or set prices and everybody was welcome to have a haircut and pay whatever they would like.
The day was advertised around all the surrounding villages with the hope that the message would reach people who would like to come and get their hair cut, but can’t necessarily afford to.
However, the weather gods were not kind, with an amber warning for rain and wind hovering over the Shap area.
A spokeswoman for the salon said: “It was absolutely terrible weather, so that probably put a lot of people off coming out.”
She said a similar event was planned for the future, hopefully when the weather was improved.
She added: “I know everyone is struggling to a certain degree, but probably some more so than others, especially with energy bills and the price of everything going up.
“It was a fantastic idea to host it. It was anonymous as well. The donations were just put into a container. You didn’t see what was going in.”
