The owner of a store in Ayr is planning to shave off his lockdown locks in honour of Whiteleys Retreat.

Lewis Costley, who owns Ocean Stores in Ayr, wanted to take on the challenge due to the support shown for his business from the public during lockdown.

He started the shop back in April 2019, when he was just 19 years old.

After a slow start, his business started to boom at the beginning of the pandemic, with people keen to support local stores.

With his support ever-growing, Lewis felt it was time to show some support back to the public, and he had the perfect way to do so.

He said: “The support we have been shown by our local customers has been truly amazing and given the the fact we have been in the fortunate position of not having to stop trading we felt we should try and give something back.

“Since opening the shop we have managed to build up a wee following on social media and I kept on noticing light hearted comments from our regulars saying it was maybe time to hit the barbers, as I have really let the ‘lockdown locks’ go wild.

“This soon made us realise that the perfect thing to do would be to shave them all off. We do lots of videos on our social media and thought we could do one for this.

“After struggling to think of something to do at first we soon realised the answer was staring us right in the face... literally”.

Lewis takes great pride in his “lockdown locks” and is often light-heartedly teased by regular customers about his hair. The shave will take place on May 19, with all proceeds going towards Whiteleys Retreat.

Lewis and the team are going to be doing this on video outside the shop and will have Louise McCreadie from Louise McCreadie Hair coming along to the shop to help them out.

Lewis added: “I’m truly honoured to be in a position to give something back and just want to say a big thank you again to everyone for you continued support.”

A Whiteleys Retreat spokesperson said: “Thank you to Lewis Costley, owner of Ocean Stores in Ayr who will be shaving off his incredible lockdown locks for the charity. What amazing support for the charity, especially during these difficult fundraising times.”

You can support Lewis’ shave by visiting the Ocean Store Ayr Facebook page.